Stardust
by AT0036
Summary: Captain B. McCrea had told everyone on Earth that not to reactivate AUTO. However, after his death, a teenager switched AUTO on. What would happen after his return? Was the Earth as sustainable as the captain said before? The story focus on AUTO. This is the translation of 《彗核》.
1. Prologue

**_Author's note:_**

 ** _This is my first try to translate such a long story. I am not confident at my translation skills. There must have many usage or grammar mistakes. Please point it out if you find it. I 'll try my best to deliver an excellent story for you._**

* * *

The orange light of the sun shone on each tree, which with scales covering their trunks. Creatures were fumigated in the humid air, cause them dizzy to sleep. This was just a normal summer afternoon.

But it didn't bother this nonage T-rex hiding under bushes. On the contrary, its day just started. The sunlight wasn't burning like noon anymore; the orange glow was gradually fading away. A breeze whipped through the valley. The young T-Rex came out of the bushes, twittered its head and neck; then began to track the vestige of the day—it was too small to attack other dinosaurs, so it only expected to find a remains of other dinosaurs, sustaining its life in the crack between survival and death.

It was lucky today. It didn't take too much time wandering and it caught a strong bloody smell. It followed the smell and discovered that it was a large Hadrosaur which was hunted down by the adult T-Rexs. A lot of meat still remained on its bones. And it was good that it was still fresh. The young T-Rex glanced through its surroundings, making sure that there were no other large predator wandering around its dinner. It growled at the small animals who were still enjoying their feast on the dead Hadrosaur, made them run away. The young T-Rex buried its head into the remains of Hadrosaur, began to gnaw the delicious meat on the ribs.

The sky were no longer bright. Some huge bugs with hard shells dashed through the grass. They whispered to each other with their inbred violins. Soon the sound of calling the mate gave a soft bath to this area. The tinkling sound rising like smog from the murky valley. The young T-rex still enjoyed itself in the tasty meat, paying no attention to the chorus of insects.

It was totally dark after the huge meal. The T-Rex sauntered near the cliff. A sparkle slid into its eyes. It looked at the sparks alertly.

Although it was evening, the dark yellow clouds were still clear enough to see. That sparkle must come from the storm clouds over the valley. Must find a shelter tonight. It paced near the cliff, just like a ghost. But somehow it didn't want to hide into its bushes so soon tonight; instead, it wanted to stay at the cliff more longer.

If it was lucky enough, it can be a bit more threatening less than half a year. Maybe it could get the chance to ascend to the throne of this valley if survived longer.

Another sparkle drove its attention again. Once more it turned its head to find the origin of this sparkle. This time it found something new, something it haven't seen before—it didn't look like the twisted branches as before—it looked like a sword.

Oh no, a T-Rex didn't know what was a sword. The shape of this bright thing just remind it of the white horn of Triceratops or a clean white rib.

That was not even a sparkle. Under the sky, this "horn" glared with sharp white and dashed into the other side of the valley, then disappeared.

Then, two swords, three… More and more "horns" commenced to rain, carrying a strange sound of tearing the atmosphere. The young T-Rex sensed the air today was a bit unusual. It wanted to leave the cliff. Its muscles had been tensed in order to carry their owner to run away at any time. However, it was still curious about the amazing scene below the sky.

Suddenly the sky grew much brighter. An huge "horn" jabbed into the dark sky, shining like sun. The "horn" suddenly burst into several pieces half on its way, however, the wreck seemed as huge as the horn before, every piece was a large burning rock. These rocks were not as white as before, instead, they reached the land in orange and red. The scream of the falling burst everywhere.

It was never a good sign. The T-Rex started to flee immediately, with the mind of finding a tight shelter. The memory remained in its gene told it that fireballs were always evil.

It was just aware that the sky behind it seemed bulged with light. The T-Rex could only spared a quick glance while running. There must be another huge fireball fell through the atmosphere. Now it had reached its destination, bringing energy and mess as a gift for the land. The land received the generous welcome gift from the guest of the outer space, raising a scalding white and hot ball of dust as an overwhelmed respond.

The T-Rex stopped running suddenly, it was confused by such an unfamiliar scene.

Eventually it went for a shelter. It remembered that cave, safe and deep, tough enough to resist the volcanic ash. It just had to run faster, because the ball of dust seemed to expand in an extremely large rate.

But when the shock wave finally hit the back of the young T-Rex, everything was not so important now.


	2. Chapter 1

**_Author's note:_**

 ** _Finally! I have finished translating this tough task! Once again I hope all of you could help me figure out the grammar or usage mistakes in this chapter. If you don't understand any part of it during reading, please point it out so I can see it, I'll try my best to explain it for you. I would appreciate your help and reviews!_**

* * *

"You should all remember…that the message and warnings I gave you…"Captain B. McCrea lay on his bed, breathing with difficulty. "Must…fix the computer of the Axiom…all the information of humans and Earth is stored in it…"

"I will live up to your expectation father, and the data will be found."His son knelt down beside his bed, holding his still-fat hand, tears down the young man's cheek.

Consist of a ship rescue cabin and a brick house, the home of Captain B. McCrea was full of people. Humans stood quietly, kept a distance to the old captain and his family. The miracle of the robots—WALL-E，slid quietly to a corner and kept him as a brown cube. His partner EVE hovered near him, wait but couldn't say anything.

Captain's breath began to grow more and more rapid but more and more shallow. "There is …another…"

He couldn't complete his speech anymore. The hand buried in his son's softened, then cold, then stiffened.

Thunder rolled muffled in the sky.

Sorrow flooded through the room. The young man buried his head into the old man's arm and began to sob. His wife, holding their baby, sat softly into a hovering chair, couldn't say a single word. Some people covered their faces and went out of the room. The little M-O unit rolled into the corner which WALL-E stayed.

The little baby turned his head, looking all this confused.

"Gran-grandpa...?" He murmured softly.

* * *

A hundred years later.

A 14-year-old adolescent sat on the boarding platform, two legs slowly swung in the air, staring pointlessly toward the green vast plain surrounded the Axiom. It was noon then, however, the sun didn't pour its powerful light into the newly-born ground. Dark clouds rolled lower and lower. More and more days appeared like it now.

He glanced at the dirty cloud coldly, then turned his head back to the green misty land. Now he was sitting high in the air and could fall anytime. But he didn't care. Floods of thoughts had drown him in and he was too numbed to see anything. The wind blew strong and wet. The child rocked slightly in the wind. It was cold. But he ignored it.

Thunder mumbled in the distance. He still didn't aware of it.

"It's about to rain, Han, please enter the ship to take a shelter."A small robot flew over the platform and reminded Han.

The thin figure startled as the mechanical sound burst behind him. "Got it."He stood up slowly and walked into the ship.

It was really unusual for a 14-year-old adolescent walked into the ship alone. Long after the Axiom landed, the well decorated ship board had changed into a quite empty trunk. Humans took almost everything away from the Axiom they needed for construction. The place where plugged in various appliances now remained only the bases. Some beams were taken away as reinforcing bars for the houses. And the clean shining floor now were covered with layers of wet and dry dirt from Earth of this 100 years. The high power artificial sunlight from the top had no longer illuminate for years. Only few amount of holo-advertising boards were sparkling on-again-off-again, which could became permanent dark at any moment.

Even at noon, inside the Axiom were almost totally black. Small steel wrecks and wrap boxes were everywhere. But the huge trunk was the best echo-making system. Han's steps echoed in the huge empty cabin. If he stopped, his ear would filled with the sound of wind and the creaky groan of the ship's shell. When there were no wind whispering, his ear would plug with uncomfortable quiet. However, he eventually got used to such quiet after spending more and more time aboard.

The empty Axiom were the best place for kids to play _Zombies Gonna Eat You_. Sometimes 10 to 20 kids would rushed into the Axiom. Girls often left the ship just 10 minutes later with fear but pouting with dignity. Boys always stayed in there, almost forgot leaving. They hid in the dark corners, some kids made ghost screaming from time to time. Clever ones often just quietly hid in a corner but they would abruptly catch a double team or even a poor loner. The hunters and the preys' screaming echoed every place inside the Axiom.

These boys were just seemly brave and don't afraid of dark. Once the game's over, if the majority of boys had left, the rest would obediently follow the large force. Even did some gifted snipers. None of the kids dare to stay on the ghostly Axiom alone. But after their 12th, they would get tired of such a game. They were no longer afraid of anything on the Axiom, however, they simply didn't want to enter the boring cabin again.

Han was one of the members of the zombie side. He was almost scared to death by the dark cabin and his companions when he was a boy but he just couldn't help resist the exciting events. He had learned to reach any part of the Axiom after years of exploring, it was a great help for him to walk in the Axiom now.

A faint humming suddenly came from the top of the cabin. Han glanced at one of the entrance he just passed, there were raining heavily outside. However, the rain drops were mixed with mud, dropping onto the boarding platform, spattering black slurry on everywhere. He heard that the rain sometimes came like this just since 20 years ago and no one knew why.

He was already 14 but still entered the Axiom. So he was considered to be a kid never grown up by his companions. He was weak compared to some boys started to attain maturity so he became the best target to bully. Han hid into the cabin to avoid friends' sneers. Because of the sneers, he spent more and more time on the Axiom.

Is the dark cabin that horrible? There was nothing. Just cold, dark and sometime blurring by wind. There was no vampire, no zombie and no alien. His little friends thought that, so did Han. They didn't enter anymore because it was no longer terrible, but Han realized it was no longer horrible that he came in more and more confidently.

"If you are not scared then come in like me!" Once Han was surrounded by several big boys.

"Who told you that I am scared so I don't dare to enter, you idiot?" A boy sniffed at him, "You even didn't finish what you supposed to do in the farm. Kick him!"

"Ho…how can I finish ploughing that farm in _one_ day? Nobody can do that!"

"Oh? Is that the reason you escaped to the Axiom? Very funny." The boy suddenly dragged Han's collar, " There are so many robots, dummy! Can't you throw your job to them?!"

After the beating, Han didn't tell his parents about this. But the stained cloth and his purple and red scar didn't escape from his mother's eyes. He had to tell everything to his mom. More to his expectation, his mom paled, then told his father about this.

"You have already 13. If you don't learn to farm since now, how could you feed yourself later?" His mother tried her best to turn her son's mind.

"You are ruining our family if you against the rules our ancestors made before!" His family roared at him angrily. "You can receive Nothing from the shuttle. It will never fly again. Now is your business to learn more on the land!"

It was not the first time Han heard of this. He understood very clearly that what he would receive was a 30 minutes lecture. If worse, it would just plus a dinner of nothing. He wouldn't be beaten. So he took a deep breath, preparing himself to make the word go in his ear and out of another.

"…I know McCrea told us to repair the Axiom's data base, but that's not your business. We are no longer the giant pigs in the chair. Our technology are gradually return to the path. Robots are helping us find the missing data. And there are many specialists are trying to figure out the ship's problem. You should never concern about that."

Countless minutes had passed since Han was involved in this lecture. His mind just finished wondering around and he heard his dad began to persuade him like this. This was a good sign, for it means that the speech was about to finish and plus a nice sentence reduce.

 _It is kidding._ Han thought to himself. He had entered the ship for many times, there was no one ever up to the bridge. There was no robot, no specialist, nothing. But he still lowered his head, pretending realize his mistake. This would make the end come soon. Just gave them some time to pour all their words out.

Of course, he didn't turn his mind from the moralistic words. On the contrary, he spent more and more time on the bridge. One reason was the big boys. Another was, he had found his very attraction in the ship.

His father told him not to touch the ship because one day Han completed one circuit in the bridge by coincidence. Then a part of console came into functioning. This event was a surprise to the whole Earth Village, just like Captain B. McCrea wired the video broadcast on that day. But soon he was banned to go up to the bridge because people were afraid that he would awake Auto the mayor criminal one day. Captain McCrea once said that Auto had emotions. They would never expect what would happen if he was awake. So the old captain warned people never wake him up.

Han was scared by this prohibition at first, but soon he found that there was no one guarding the Axiom. So he continued go into the bridge then. After he understood better of the circuits, he found that the very reason of the console's failure was that the logic circuits inside the bulkhead was damaged by the cruel nature. Han had been to the Axiom's computer room several times. Every time he was choked by the mouldy smell inside the room, which was supposed to be an air free area.

After some careful considerations, he finally found some ELE-Es (Electronic Engineer Unit) and was happy to find that they didn't suspect him because of the prohibition, which means that they didn't know the whole thing or they didn't care about it. He watched as the ELE-Es repairing the console and the computer. He was about to ask the ELE-Es something about the computer, a robot suddenly turned around, spoke to Han in his monotone voice.

"There are system permissions in the computer, we are not authorized to break the permissions."

Han froze for a second. After the ELE-E explaining to him what was a system permission, Han told them he gave them permission and urged them to break it.

"Negative. Failed to authorize. You are not the top administrator."

Han froze once more. "Can you round that little program to continue repairing?"

"Negative: this is not a little program, this is the necessary way to complete repairing."

Now there is only one way. "Who is the top administrator then?"

"I am sorry, it is classified."The monotone voice answered.

"Why?" Han figured it really strange.

"I am sorry, we are ordered not to answer this question."The monotone voice answered again.

Han lost deeply in thought. After living so long with robots, Han knew that he could receive nothing even he forced them to do a job they were ordered not to do by a superior earlier. That was mysterious that Captain B. McCrea could even dug Auto's 700-years'secrete. _Maybe they would told me if I change a method?_

But soon he was proved wrong. He found that whatever he say, once talked about the top administrator, those robots would always cleverly round his topic away and never told the name. Later, those robots would evade his visit or call politely. They even figured out Han's purpose at every conversation's very beginning.

Han finally understood. Everything was clear now. His methods must have been tried before by his fathers, but it didn't work anyway. McCrea finally said that he wanted people to repair the computer, which indicated that he couldn't do it and he wasn't the top administrator, and it could be infer that every captain must not be. Shelby Forthright? Maybe. But there were 5 launch windows on this bay. There must be more launch windows around the world. If one man commanded every computer on the ship, all the ship could be malfunction totally once he gone away. There would be no more shuttle remain in space in less than 700 years. Actually the Axiom has recordings that the ship has failed before, but had been repaired without outer directives.

…Could a CEO really care about such ships' permission? More importantly, McCrea could use his tongue again to force those robots tell the name rather than delayed it until today.

Then the answer was clear. It was Auto that controlled the computer all the time and he know well the robots' logic, so only he could gave them a immutable order. On the other way, old captain's warnings were superior than repairing the ship's computer. So all the progress were stuck here for so many years. Humans were helpless, so did robots.

Han didn't mind the warning so much. He had listened to so many ancient stories about such things. He was convinced and even frightened for some real things that the stories mentioned about before, however, once he found that the Axiom was just dark inside but with no monster, suspiciousness grew in his mind. That warning of keeping Auto sleep also couldn't escaped from the list. Every time he entered the bridge, he couldn't ignore that inert wheel.

 _Smaller than I thought._ Han thought when the first time he scrutinized Auto. At first he didn't dare to touch Auto. But soon he began to prod the black-and-white spokes and then grabbed the taser, put his skin against that two steel bipolar needle with a grin.

Only he touched the switched upwards could this guy wake up. But that switch was so high that without some jumps couldn't anyone touch it. As for the spokes, he could spun and touch them whenever he wanted to.

Han sometimes just looked at Auto for a long time instead of fiddling with the console. He found that Auto's white face plate now was stained with slight brown, his spokes also remained the traces of violence.

The most powerful villain has scars too, they can always get wounded. Han looked at Auto quietly and thought what made this so called bad ass consider to be heinous. Now his single optic was dark, the motor behind his face plate didn't drag him straight neither, let him hang on the ceiling softly and was at an 14-year-old teenager's mercy. If he was that terrible, he wouldn't be beaten by a fat captain and now be eroded by time.

Han was so eager to recover the computer that he almost lost his mind to jump and switch. He was afraid that if the computer continue being left like this, they would have no more chance to find the statistics back and the hardware would be eaten by the mould soon. That would be the judgment day of all the humans–no knowledge, no survival.

Reactivate him?

This was a serious philosophy question.

Han didn't know if there were anyone thought about this during the 100 years. Maybe they had thought about it but didn't proceed because of the warning. He suddenly regretted that he didn't have more chance to know more about Auto. In his opinion, Auto was not so dangerous as most of people said. But he didn't sure about it.

The only danger must be that taser. Han had thought it for times. So he began to rack his brain at whether he should reboot Auto.

These days, he looked like a boy who had had his spirit crushed out of him. He lost his appetite and couldn't sleep well. His parents were concerned about their son's health. One day his mother came and asked him about something irrelevant but Han just shuddered and denied subconsciously. He even couldn't dare to look into his mother's eyes. So this morning, he slipped out of the house before his parents could abuse him and went to Axiom straightly.

What was the old captain afraid of? Was he afraid that Auto would launch the ship into the space? Maybe he still could do this 100 years ago, but not now. He could never make it over a thousand meters high because the ship would broke into pieces within minutes.

Suddenly another possibility came into his mind: the position of Auto among all the robots . Maybe McCrea was afraid of his power and ambition to control all the humans. But what was the purpose? Kidnapping humans, the worst, killing all of them, then rule the Earth? However, after the revenge, he couldn't leave the ship, he couldn't find other material to repair this abandoned ship, he could only tolerate the life inside the bridge. Finally he just could rule all his robots just as the beginning of his revenge.

Apart from this, Auto actually didn't show his ambition to control all the humans referred to all the events. In his prosecution case of _Rogue Day_ , he even didn't take the cruelest method towards humans because of his plot of "exposed the dark purpose."

Han had watched many movies from the computer. He inferred from an ancient Sci-fi movie that if Auto really wanted to control the whole ship, he would never leave the captain a way to survive and all the people inside the ship would under his control without any doubt.

He went up the bridge and suddenly was aware that he had stood in front of the wheel. He has convinced himself with all the reasons he could found to break the cell of this lonely synthetic soul. He didn't know whether his thoughts were right, but he couldn't let himself to think more objectively now. This requested too much for a 14-year-old boy.

However, he didn't take action immediately. His face were pale and hands were sweating.

It wasn't the first offence for him to broke the rules. But it was the first time that he was about to break such a rule. He was terrified at what would happen after he broke this rule. If everything went smoothly and Auto didn't revenge, he didn't know how his parents and the village Mayor would think. If he was wrong, Auto did began to kidnap humans, he would be the first victim.

Just thought about one man may lost his life in a day if he pressed the switch, anyone wouldn't do it without hesitation.

Looking through the large window, the muddy rain seemly unstoppable. This was a perfect time. If he didn't do it today, if he was caught going up again and they began to send guards sitting there, he would never have chance to go up the bridge. Then the computer could never be repaired…

The temptation were too strong. He felt as if he was date back to the days he was still a child, hiding in a dark corner in the Axiom. His hearts almost jumped out of his throat. He thought he would die soon at that time, however, he was afraid that today would be a real trial of his life.

When he was about to touch that switch, his shaking finger suddenly stopped. A great idea came into his mind. He grinned. At least this could extend his life, or maybe better…

After the work, he hid behind Auto's face plate, using a long steel stick slowly rest on that small switch. Then he pressed harder and harder…


	3. Chapter 2

**_A/N: Translating is a tough work._**

* * *

Noise.

Shock.

Anger.

The artificial sunlight penetrated into the single optic.

The burden lightened suddenly.

Because of the coil's self inductance, it didn't froze right away. He still had a few microseconds to be aware that his strength as well as his mind were going.

 _Don't do that! You are all doomed to die!_

The last flow of consciousness tried its utmost to cried out. However, it had no way to learn whether its voice had been heard or not.

It seemed that just few seconds later, he came to himself abruptly. As soon as the voltage achieved the effective level he thought he still can retrieve the situation. The static commands came to life and carried on their undone missions of spinning and dashing. At the same time, his CPU rapidly programmed the next step of movement. However, he paused suddenly by the strange feelings that his sensors sent to him.

He tried spinning his flame, surprised to find that there was something tied on his frame so that he couldn't move a bit.

Including the active top pulley. It seemed was stuck by something.

Suddenly he realized the light was strangely poor. _Is now the cycle night?_

As well as the gravity. He looked out of the window, what he saw shocked him.

 _Was the Axiom crashed into an unknown planet just in a few seconds when I was unconscious_?

Pricking sparked on his left handle where the taser hid. He activated the diagnostic program. The unexpected answer was that he just tazed himself. The electric discharging while the taser was still folded. _What a shame_. The unfamiliar embarrassing feeling flooded through his core, made him froze for a moment.

The messy code finally went back to their routine as the processors came online one by one. He understood finally.

 _The captain brought the ship to Earth successfully. Now is the irreversible doom of the human beings._

* * *

It was an opposite story in Han's eye.

He jolted at the sudden sound of powering up. His hand uncontrollably trembled and suddenly lost its all strength. The steel stick surely fell onto the ground, making a pretty loud crystal sound.

 _Crap._

Han watched the wheel as he scrambled into the console behind, heart almost jumped out of throat. The blood hit his head and brain, causing him desperately dizzy. He was so frightened that his hands involuntarily moved to his mouth, to avoid emitting any sound. At the same time, the steering wheel abruptly jolted and began spinning, almost broke away from what Han just spent a large amount of time on it. He had seen the trembling of those ropes; some of them even was about to loose.

The boy closed his eyes. He shrunk himself deeply under the console, with the strong hope of just find a hole on the ground so he could flee out of this room without being noticed. He was afraid that if he came out he would bump into an rageful autopilot who was ready for tazing anyone.

It was the most unbearable moment that Han ever been in.

But nothing occurred.

He carefully raised his head, found that Auto didn't get rid of the ropes. He gave out a silent relief sigh. But soon he was astonished to find that the robot didn't even try to flee himself again.

The servo motor had already drag the plate upright. And 5 handles were in place, which suggested that the robot came online successfully. But he just stayed still quietly without any sign of acting.

 _Is he contacting other robots now so...?_

Han was terrified by his own thoughts. He swiftly covered his mouth to prevent scream emit from his lips.

The rain had stopped. Twilight was dimly arrived. A cold wind must drilled out from somewhere, blowing some dusts dancing into the air. Han suddenly felt itchy in his nose. He quickly gagged his nose to avoid the sudden blow of breath, which cause another symptom of almost breaking the eardrums. He felt his chest in a dull pain but couldn't compare with the tearing pain in his ears. The boy tried to focus on the sound and was pleased to found that he could still hear things. And most importantly, the sneeze seemed didn't have made any sound.

When he raised his head again, a horrible voice shocked him.

 **"Come out."** A mechanical, monotones and cold timbre.

On one hand, Han was extremely frightened. On the other hand, he never heard anyone's voice was like that. He actually didn't recognized the meanings of the two words. Now the only thing he could do is tried his best to stop himself trembling so that he could make less sound.

 **"I know, you are, behind."** The deep voice appeared again. This time , the robot said it in tune and he slowed down, as if he was trying to let Han understand.

Han indeed understood it this time. He crawled out from the console, cautiously came around from the back to the front of the round plate where the red light now flashing on its middle. He kept a distance of at least two meters between the robot, still observing the slight movement of adjusting the aperture in the single optic.

 **"Loosen."** Auto said.

Han stood there with his face pale. He didn't dare to take any action.

 **"I need your assistance."** Seeing Han didn't move, Auto said in tune.

" W…will you taze me?" Han gazed the emotionless-apparent robot alertly.

 **"Negative."** Answered instantly.

Han still didn't pace forward. He was serious about being tazed. Han didn't know whether Auto lied to him.

 **"I'm not lying."** Said in a calm and deep voice. Auto got Han's mind.

Han finally decided to drag himself slowly and carefully to approach the robot before him. He plucked his courage to stand on a chair near Auto, timidly loosing the ropes which wired tightly around Auto's spokes and the top pulley. Finally, he put out his knife and carefully shoveled the glue which stuck the taser spoke together.

It's really not Auto's fault to taze himself at the beginning. Han did. When Auto was switched off, his taser was open but Han folded it. So when Han turned him on, as the program of tazing reactivated automatically, the taser would naturally activated.

After he done his work, Han stepped backward. He watched as the robot spun in small degrees and moved back and fore slightly. Then they looked at each other, without saying anything.

 **"Which year?"** A long time later, Auto broke the silence.

"The year 2950." Han said.

The spider-like robot paused for this answer. Then he asked. **"Who are you?"**

"Han Kent."

 **"Who wakened me?"**

"Me."

 **"Why?"**

Han looked into that emotionless red round optic. The answer was just beneath his tongue but he just couldn't speak it out. Han was actually relieved a little due to the conversation between him and Auto because Auto seemed not that terrible as he thought before.

He tried to calm himself down, then spoke as clear as he could.

"There is a failure in the computer but none of us are able to get rid of it. They say that it is unauthorized and I think—"

The stationary robot suddenly pulled up, cause the boy swallowed all his words and shiveringly lowed himself down. Auto surmounted the face-paled boy and came to the console. When Han finally stood up again, he was amazed to find that Auto was operating the console.

Just after a few swift prods, the robot suddenly paused. Then he turned his face plate to Han.

 **"Completely destroyed."** Auto said, **" Repair-bots are ready."**

Han gasped at this answer. He shuttered a bit. This time, he forgot his own alarm of Auto and walked toward him, spoke with a horrified face.

"Auto, could you not to connect other robots…for now?"

 **"Why?"**

"Do you know that Captain B. McCrea once told us all not to boot you up? If I was to find I would be at no mercy…" Han almost begging.

This time Auto didn't give respond immediately as he always did. He paused for several seconds for this.

 **"Confidential instruction transmitted."** Auto finally answered, with face plate turning to the huge French window. **"Han, when you successfully reactivated me, all the robots of the Axiom would have observed my log-in signal."**

This truth was far beyond Han's expectation, though it should have been well considered. He chocked for a long time, staring aimlessly out of window.

Suddenly the boy cried out, cause Auto shifted his spokes.

 **"What?"** Auto asked.

"Gosh, it's already dark!" Han dashed to the stairs—the elevator was already rusty. "Don't turn on the light, don't let anyone notice there's something moving in the bridge!" He halt suddenly in the stairs and threw down these two sentences to Auto. Then he disappeared under the stairs.

Watching all this, Auto spared no action. _Odd._ He thought. He felt the message Han just gave to him made his CPU stuck for a second. _I_ ' _ll check their memory banks once the repair-bots show up._

Again he turned to the window. Although it was already dark outside, he could still recognize the rough, dark blanket covering the land. Plants.

 _Did I make a wrong conclusion?_ Auto thought to himself. He didn't forget to check Probe one's memory on that day. Although the directive A-113 occupied mostly in his conclusion, he didn't ignore that inside EVE's recording, the Earth indeed was unsustainable. No grass, no water, only endless deserts and relics; it was obviously not the right time to return. So he told the captain again and again that Humans cannot go back.

However, even under his opposition, the captain actually brought the ship back on earth. More importantly, all the humans survived. He felt his logic components just have met a much stronger resistance. _Not possible._ Nevertheless, the reality did give him a ironic consequence.

There's one more thing. Auto felt more confused. _Why captain warned people that I shouldn't be rebooted?_

 _What the hell of all these._

Inferred from Han's behavior, many humans still remained deep hatred toward him up to now. It's true that his taser had impressed people deeply but, it never ranked from the bottom of his list of solving progress. During the 700 years, you can even count the uses of his taser by counting your single hand fingers. Not until the last day in space didn't human show any disgustingness toward him.

Auto couldn't figure out any reason that people appeared to him now. _Very funny._

The Network had already configured inside his CPU. He couldn't help checking and analyzing the frequency of the interaction. _No surprise_. From the moment that he logged in the Network, the frequency of communication had drawn a pretty subtle crest. Since he couldn't check the content of those private communications, all he could do was just watch the tendency to see if it was related to him.

A strange sound suddenly interrupted the commander's thought. It sounded like different groups of metals rubbed each other. Auto turned around, was a bit shocked to see that the elevator used to be functioning smoothly and quietly now seemed had lost any aspect of its benefits. It stopped and ran randomly.

After seemed like almost a century's time, the elevator struggled to open its door. Some ELE-Es appeared. Once they moved out of the elevator, they stopped in unison.

They watched their fully on-line commander in awe. They shared the similar thoughts with humans, that they might meet with a terrible avenger. For this they even discussed about how to deal with that situation for a while. However, when they nervously came out of the elevator, Auto didn't show any anger to them. Instead, he just politely and calmly hung on the other side of the bridge as he always did before. Their burden released a lot.

"Good evening, boss." An ELE-E broke the silence in Robotics.

ELE-Es received Auto's instructions and began to work immediately. At first they remained reserved under the monitor of Auto. But as the repair work proceeding, they didn't been interrupted a bit by the commander. Soon they all forgot they were still monitored and began to chat occasionally while working. They didn't dare to chat when working at bridge before. Today should them did that, however, after 100 years of human culture exposure no one could avoid being affected. The random chats eventually turned to continuing sound with some bursts mixed in it; that's their own laughter.

Auto spared a quite large space for them. He just hung on the almost longest distance between these robots as he could in the room, quietly watching them. If he felt it offended he would warning them much earlier. But he didn't do so. If the chatter didn't effect the working efficiency a lot, he would let them go. Not until those robots stopped to messing around would he make a announcement. Besides, he can trapped some information from their topics.

Auto didn't like beating around. But since he met the serious setback due to his cursoriness to the circumstance, he choose to wait and observe rather than take actions that have already loaded in his processor. Now the situation had changed. Not until he made sure that he had collected enough information did he decide to proceed. So he changed his mind of checking their memory banks once he observed their changes.

 _They changed._ Auto inferred from the talking way that his ex-crew showed. Now they were more and more like humans. Which suggested that they would probably hide some information. _Would they hide information from me?_ Auto lost in deep thought. He decided to be more careful to give instructions the next time.

So the air in the bridge was relaxing, temporary. The harsh commander seemed to pay no attention to the troublemakers in his office. The OCD patient seemed to be cured. That's a good sign.

* * *

However, Han was going through a hard time.

It was the first time that he had ever felt the distance between his home and Axiom was too far to let him make it. He felt as if he had walked into midnight, but still didn't exit the giant cabin. Darkness closed every corner inside the Axiom. He forgot whether he had been walked in this situation before or not. He was afraid. But the surroundings didn't frightened him. He was afraid that he didn't know how to explain to his parents why he came back so late. He skipped the farming again, without knowing who would be the informant of him.

His mind uncontrollably began to film how his parents would react of this. He was threatened by his own imagination, jolted to start running. Han was always quite proud of his explosive footwork and endurance, however, today he felt no matter how quick his leg oscillating he was moving even slower than a snail. And he felt exhausted even after a few footsteps. The right exit seemed like keeping a not too far but not close enough distance between him forever. In other words, it just like you and moon. You walk, it follows you. But when you chase it, you will never catch it up. It always keep a distance between you.

Han finally made it to that unwillingly welcomed exit, with butterflies in his stomach. The cold wind swept through him. He signed in relief. At least he had finished half of the way.

Looking through the boarding platform, Han could see scattered lights shone on the vast ground. He was sure that he could point his home out from theses lights immediately. When he raced down the platform, a terrible truth suddenly hit his mind.

Nice half way. Actually, 3/4 of the total path was just waiting for him.

In the bleak night Han run alternated with walk, almost out of breath. However, although he had much longer way to go than on the ship, he didn't felt so anxious as before. Maybe it was because of the wind?

More and more familiar farms had been passed by. When the light of his own home finally shone its way to him like lighthouse, he suddenly stopped.

Strangely, he wasn't so eager to enter the house now. He even was afraid of it. He wouldn't know what he would face. What Auto said to him suddenly echoed in his mind. If that was true, now the message of Auto's return must have been spread through the whole Earth Village. Although Auto told him that he had transmitted the new directive, between the time of the transmission and booted up could still let some big mouths be out of hook.

He heard something from the living room. He listened to it very carefully, was shocked to distinguish that there were some unfamiliar voices. _Crap._ He knew that his family rarely receive guests on the working days, there was no holiday around either. The big boys wouldn't inform to his parents about his absence. So the worst had happened. He had been found.

However, he was amazed to find that he was calming down instead of more frightened as he thought.

Han went into a farm and found a muddy pond. He applied some mud onto his pants and sleeves, pretending that he had been worked hard till now. Then he slowly walked toward his house, looking extremely exhausted.

He quietly opened the door, with the thought of undetectably slid through the door then gave a fine excuse. But as soon as he opened the door, three faces and a robot pair turned to him. The conversation stopped suddenly.

He knew it well when he was out of the door. Now the three beings out of his family let him thought that the thing couldn't be worse.

The mayor, Wall-E and Eve.

"You've done what, young man?" His father yelled at him and strode toward him.

The poor boy shrunk himself and closed his eyes. Beating was unavoidable. But this time, he could only pray he would still alive.

* * *

Previously. Two hours ago.

Wall-E and Eve were proceeding their mission of exploring after the rain. Now that humans had returned to Earth. They were regarded as expeditionists. With the help of Eve, Wall-E now could go to much far away from the Earth Village to explore the sustainable place. Humans also provided them seeds every time they set out to spread the hope of life.

Just when Wall-E was played with a string of newly found bells, Eve received a login signal.

She was confused that who would log in even 100 years after the Axiom landed so she checked the signal. To her shock, that actually was Auto.

Eve didn't like Auto. Even at the beginning. She _would_ show respect to him, but it was just out of primary programming and manners. Especially when he almost tazed Wall-E to die, she couldn't bear any moment this wheel functioning. _If I have had to face this moron._ She thought. _I would get him._

Eve tipped on Wall-E gently but with worried eyes projected on her face. Wall-E turned around confused. Eve told everything to Wall-E, seeing this waste compressor shrunk himself into a box immediately and trilled.

【Go for the mayor.】She said in Robotics, holding Wall-E up and then flew for the Earth Village.

Later Eve received another message from Auto. This time was an order that every robot must not inform any humans about his awaken.

Even it came from her boss that had set in her programming, she resolutely decided to disobey it with sulk. _Auto is too dangerous._ She thought. _Such news must told humans as soon as possible._

After they rushed into the mayor's home, Eve tried her utmost to told it to the mayor. Then she insisted the mayor come to the bridge with her.

However, the mayor just lost in thoughts. After a while, he told Eve that he would check it first rather than go to the bridge immediately.

There was a control room near the mayor's house. He had installed a secret camera in the bridge, the other side was linked to this room. He initiated the holo-screen. A boy's figure jumped into the screen suddenly.

Just checked it more carefully, he was very near the steering wheel with tiny movements on his arms. The boy seemed talking with the robot before him.

"It's him." The mayor said. "No surprise."

"Danger." Eve repeated this word. "Must go to the bridge."

The mayor made a gesture of restrain, "I'll have a talk to his parents first." He brought a small receiver and exited the room so he could still monitor the bridge.

Eve was reluctant to accept the result, but she said nothing more. She held Wall-E then exited the room too.

* * *

"Hey, don't do that so hurry." The mayor held the rage man back. "Let kid explain it for us."

" What else can come out of his mouth?" The man stopped, but anger still remained on his face.

"Here, would you like to tell us what you did today?" The mayor came to Han and asked calmly.

The boy still shrunk himself. He raised his head in horror, face paled. " Went into the bridge and reactivated Auto."

"Why did you initiate him?" The mayor asked, still calmly.

" For the computer…" Han said it in rather faint voice. He didn't dare to look into the mayor's eyes. Although the man before him seemed didn't plan to blame him or something, who could tell it?

The two felt a commotion behind them. The woman was grabbing her husband tightly. As for the man, his anger looked like a flame thrust straight into his own son.

"Tell something about Auto, please?" The mayor turned around and asked again.

"I…I…" Han knew the answer however, he didn't dare to say it. For this would be a terrible proof of betrayal.

" Tell us, please." The mayor said gently. "It would be fine."

Han haltingly opened his mouth, then looked down to the ground, muttered.

"I…I think he is fine…"

"What do you mean by 'fine' ?"

"…He didn't taze me. He didn't swear. Nothing occurred…"

The boy lost his courage to continue.

" That's OK. Go and have your dinner." The mayor tapped the boy's shoulder and said.

 _It can't be true!_ Han glanced at mayor in disbelief. The man just responded him with a calm face. The boy rushed into the kitchen.

 _I am released! I will not be beaten!_ Han scoffed the already cold food. At the same time, he was secretly listening to the sound from the living room.

"We respect you and your decision, Mr. Grande. But now we are quite worried about it." Her mother's voice slid into Han's ears. " Although nothing happened today, who knows later? Even you cannot guarantee this."

"That's right." The voice of the mayor was still calm. "So may I suggest we should deal with it tomorrow? It is not a good time to go to the bridge now. Relax and don't blame your kid, alright?"

The door shut gently. Han became nervous again, because dad's gloomy gaze were approaching. His mom also didn't show any sign of approval of him. Han subconsciously dropped his spoon into the plate.

However, his dad didn't explode with rage. The farmer just sat near the table and began to have dinner. So as his mother.

The whole family finished the dinner in a extremely weird silence.

* * *

 ** _I don't know whether Auto should act like that when he is reactivated. I think this one's much different from what I've read in both FF and DA. If you think it is unreasonable please review. Of course, other reviews are badly needed._**


	4. Chapter 3

The efficiency of the robots was absolutely very high. After only one night, the Bridge's maintenance team had basically restored the console's function.

Auto watched as they left the Bridge and then went through the test by himself. Now that the console was repaired, a stack of warning lights all started flashing and beeping on the console. Auto checked out the error types one by one, realizing that the ship was in much worse condition than he had expected. Many of the sensors on the ship had failed, the actual damage would be more than those flashing lights currently reported.

Worst of all, there was terrible damage in the processor room of the ship's computer. Auto discovered this by checking the logbook. The Log was the only document he could guarantee that he kept a intact copy as well as the Axiom's computer. Fortunately his own copy didn't seemed to have much problem, which means that he did not need a disability level assessment.

 _Now that humans have settled down on Earth. However, resources are no longer able to fully allocated to the Axiom. So what should be considered now is which part of the ship needs to be repaired._

When Auto was thinking about this issue, footsteps came behind him. He turned around, waiting for the visitors who appeared at the staircase.

A head came out of the staircase, followed by another, then another ... Auto was quietly surprised when the last two Non-human members finally came to his sight.

 _Wall-E is still functioning._

Auto didn't hate Wall-E. If this little guy could have understood the situation any better, he wouldn't take the action in such an extreme way. But this robot's stubbornness really annoyed him at that time. 700 years of his own command, none of the robots who own normal chips dared to offend his authority. Now he had focused on the 4 human beings, while leaving the idle peripheral of the lens silently recording the movements of the two robots.

 _Eve..._

 _For the time being, confirmed that she had listened to my instruction. The time between I having been found login and sending instructions was too long, which greatly increased the possibility of her reporting. She's too fast to be stopped._

"Good morning, Auto." Han stood in front of 3 people and greeted the red-eye robot hanging in front of them silently.

 **"Good morning, Han."** "Auto responded immediately.

"I ... I'm sorry, Auto ... " Han quietly raised his head and glanced quickly at his father, whispering.

Auto did not respond. The red light in the wide-angle lens had not changed a bit.

"What did you do last night?" The Mayor strolled leisurely toward the center of the Bridge, asking Auto in a really casual tune. He took a glance at the console. The light of the functioning part was flashing, glowing in a pretty active way than any time of the past.

 **"Supervising the console repairing and troubleshooting other failures."** Auto responded immediately.

"The scenery here is good. " The Mayor looked out the huge floor-to-ceiling window. "Do you know how is the condition of human now?"

 **"Humans have survived. "** Auto responded.

"That is correct." The Mayor slowly paced the Bridge and moved behind Auto, "Do you know why you've been reactivated?"

 **"Been told that the computer failed which you couldn't solve it. "** Auto answered. He turned slightly in order to see the Mayor.

"He's an asshole, he shouldn't be rebooted." The farmer whispered to his wife. The latter clasped her husband tightly, staring nervously at the spider-like red-eye robot and their own son.

"We saw everything that happened yesterday, Auto. "The Mayor came back where he stood at the beginning, looking straight in the red-eye robot, " But there are some stuff we don't understand, could you explain it to us?"

 **"What is it?"**

"First of all, do you know who warped you up?"

 **"Don't know. Although there is greater possibility toward Han. "**

"He did it." "The Mayor added. "So what do you think about it then?"

Auto paused for a few seconds. **"Confused."** After a while he added another word. **"Angry."**

"Here is another problem." The Mayor kept a distance between Auto, but watching closely at the robot's every move, "Why didn't you taze him?"

There was a little commotion behind the Mayor. Turning behind, he saw Wall-E had already shrunk into a yellow box, silently sneaking down to the console. Although Eve was just quietly hovering there, her expression however, was not friendly.

 **" I promised I wouldn't taze. "** Answered the monotonous tone, **"And my taser was broken."**

"If he hadn't have you promise and you didn't have broken your taser as well?" The Mayor continued asking, "Answer it directly and honestly, without considering our feelings."

 **"Negative."**

"Why?"

 **" I don't taze people without reason."**

Hearing this, the farmer immediately took a step forward and pointed at the red-eye robot.

"Why, you think we don't know how you planned to treat the captain that day?!"

Eve's beautiful blue HUD eyes turned into an extremely angry upside down crescent. This lie was too hard for her to bear.

"It seems that no one trust you. " The Mayor glanced at the two individuals holding the negative vote, and there were probably two more. " Do you have any alibi?"

Finally Auto gave out a little body language. He uttered a short, muffled electronic sound which sounded like an old cormorant purr. It was a good while before he spoke.

 **"I have no alibi."** It was said in tone. It seemed difficult for him to say something with a tone or saying a long sentence. **" If you're going to accuse me of this, go ahead. "**

If the story could dated back to more than 100 years ago, when the Axiom was still floating in space, Auto probably would have add a " This conversation can serve no purpose any more, goodbye." then immediately turned his back on those group of people. But today he restrained the impulse. Instead of disoperation, he just waited silently for the respond.

Han looked nervously at the Mayor and Auto. The conversation was getting sharper. from Auto's changing behavior, he could tell that Auto was a bit annoyed now. If the Mayor kept asking the robot like this, he might not as kind as he was yesterday.

"Wall-E and Eve are here now, Auto. " The Mayor deliberately point at the two robots, "They have been considered as the direct victims of you. We need to have a good conversation so that we can make a different impression of you. But if you refuse to continue to communicate, it may deepen the misunderstanding between us. "

 **"Agreed."** Auto resumed to his monotonous tone.

"We humans need to go down to the Captain's Apartment and have a private conversation. So you three can spare some negotiating time. What do you think?"

This time, Eve did not acting first. Instead, Wall-E immediately slid farther back and began to shiver.

The Mayor looked at Auto and shrugged.

 **"I ... promise won't harm you."** Auto said stiffly. He wanted to asked Eve to lock her gun, but didn't say it out.

"That's great. Have a nice talk. " This was an order rather than a simple sentence. The four humans walked down the stairs.

Han went down the last. He stood at the stairs and glanced at the robot he had rebooted by his own decision. Han really didn't want Auto to be shut down because of another vicious incident. Besides, he was unarmed now.

* * *

After the door of the staircase was closed, the three Non-human members on the Bridge looked at each other for some embarrassing moments.

Eve suppressed full of rage inside her processor, but somehow she just could not burst it out.

Although those three were really lame at spoken English, once using the Robotics and the Axiom Communication System, the two Axians were indeed fluent talkers. As for another left-behind member, if he was pulled into the Axiom Communication Network, he would soon rise to the rank of a Navy commander of the Marine of information.

【You ...】 After a long time, Eve just said such a word on the Internet.

【I was about to ask you, why didn't you carry out my order of keeping confidential?】 Auto questioned Eve.

【Why should I ? Now that I am out of your jurisdiction, I have the right to choose carrying out the instructions I think is right. 】Eve was unwilling to be outdone.

【Hey, when did you get out of my jurisdiction?】 Said Auto, who was astonished and irritated. 【And what the hell do you know that this directive is wrong?】

【If you're innocent, why do you have to hide yourself? You are obviously guilty.】

【...】Auto sent a string of dots to express upset. 【The boy didn't want me to be found so soon. Did you see how he was afraid of those adults? Who knows what he would go through.】

【... 】 This time, Eve was choked. She really saw Han was almost beaten by his father yesterday.

【Would you _please_ asked me why before you take your own action, I DON'T eat anyone.】

【Very nice statement. But could you control yourself?】 Eve gave a contemptuous reply.

【Same day again?】

【Yep, the Mayor have said "Let's Negotiate."】

【Nothing to negotiate. The facts are obvious.】

【Hey say, you two frontlines, could you please find somewhere else to diss each other?】 Suddenly a robot came in.

Auto immediately switched them to a private channel.

【Very clever. Claiming that I was defective so that you could say the plant was a failure.】 Eve now fully in her revenge plan.

【... Move on.】

"..." Eve thought Auto would retort, but she didn't prepare to receive that kind of respond.

【Then you told that little guy to destroy the plant. Don't mention that you almost killed Wall-E in that pod. Have you ever considered my instructions? 】

【…Continue.】

【My instructions is to keep the plant and send it to the captain, but what have you done? Sabotaging my logic and blocking my execute ways. Yes, it's unbearable for me. You know it well but still made me suffer from this? 】

【…】

【You are also so mean to him. He couldn't understand what you're talking about. You just tazed him to death. Was tazing the only program in your processor to solve such problems? 】

【…】

【And you tried to taze the captain! This is the extreme offense! The captain insisted on coming back, you have to obey his orders anyway! 】

【Eve, they couldn't survive if came back.】

【What about now?】

【…】Auto replied. 【Done?】

Eve felt her suspicions had confirmed. 【Don't think we didn't figure out why you wanted to stay in space. Because you can't leave the Axiom. When we come back you can only stay in the Bridge, then you'll be abandoned. So you didn't want to come back, right? 】

【Negative. 】

【Negative? 】 Questioned Eve.

【Negative. 】Auto replied, 【Done?】

"..." Even though her expression was all crooked, Eve was extremely annoyed to find that she actually had nothing to say now. She had no expectation that the conversation would be her own solo play.

【It seems that you're done.】 After half a minute, Auto replied. 【Then I'll solve your doubts start with the first one.】

【Please.】 Eve responded in grumpy. Since Auto was playing with the psychological tactics, why not she play with him?

【First of all, your memory was indeed faulty.】Auto replied.

"!" Eve immediately drew out her plasma gun. 【I did not tamper with the memory!】

【Your memory showed a wrong plant source. 】 Auto answered calmly. He silently increased the power of the servers connected to all the bearings, ready to respond to Eve's plasma gun at any time.

【Anyway, I found the plant.】 She said. 【This proved that the Earth's ecology was restored and human beings could survive. 】

" ... "Auto stopped the blurted retort and decided to proceed as planned. 【Secondly, I have considered your instructions. But it is not so important compared to the survival of mankind.】

 _Very well._ Eve thought to herself. _Sure enough, this guy's disposition is not changed. Now even trying to pack himself as noble and innocent._

【Then, at that time, tazed him was the most logical choice. 】 Auto stared at the Wall-E, who was almost startled.

Eve immediately raised the gun, pointing straight at the red optic. 【Your logic is the biggest mistake. 】

【Put it down.】 Auto responded coldly. 【Explain it, what is the mistake?】

【If what you said is right, that human beings come back to no survive. Then what's going on today?】 Eve just slightly lowered the muzzle's height, but still pointed to Auto.

【There was nothing wrong with my logic, but with your memory and the plant.】 Auto responded. 【Your memory showed that the dust was floating everywhere; the rubbish was covering the ground; the sewage was flowing. The plant was not found in the right place. All these signs show that the Earth was still unsustainable. I could only judge that the ecology was not restored. 】

【If there was no recovery why are those humans alive now?】Eve repeated the question and approached Auto.

【Timing back, Eve. 】 Auto moved back a little,【You can count by yourself, what was the probability that humans would survive when they came back?】

【Very high.】Eve replied. 【Have you seen the oxygen content? Fully meet the standard of needn't wearing a helmet. 】

【So what else are the conditions of the human survival?】 Auto asked Eve deliberately. The condition of human's existence is absolutely not only the oxygen content can be solved. Through 700 years of managing the spacecraft, Auto knew it very well. He quickly checked the results of that day's scans from each EVE probe, determining that apart from the rising oxygen levels, other indicators of survive on Earth were far from being required. Eve absolutely couldn't refute him.

Eve knew it was a dead end. Her insistence on going back to Earth was not simply an order at last. She knew it, but she didn't want Auto to find out what the reason was. So she decided to give up. 【You win.】

【Next one is about the captain's order.】 Auto continued, 【 The A113 directive had made it very clear. "Override Directive", "Take Full Control", "Do Not Return". You have seen the video as well. Don't tell me that you don't understand the meaning of these words.】

A long pause.

【You are a fool.】 Eve finally said. 【You are an advanced Artificial Intelligence, couldn't you judge that this directive will be invalidated one day? And this day must exist! 】

【This day has not arrived. 】Auto was a little annoyed, 【Don't use the present conclusion to infer the past! 】

【I mean,】 Eve stared at Auto, 【Couldn't you estimate whether the directive was correct or wrong at the first time?】

Auto paused this time.【Did you think the directive was wrong?】

【Finally you understand.】 Eve said sarcastically, 【Think by yourself, if you had to stay in space, the ship's resources would be consumed without replenishment all the time. After the ship was all ran out of resources, the human would only perish. Letting you such a stubborn mind take control of the ship, I am really afraid that the Axiom passengers were all sentenced to reprieve by your clever justice. 】

【That's not the truth.】 After hearing Eve's words, Auto replied immediately.

【If the running out of the spaceship's resources was happened before I brought back the plant, or if the plant I brought back was misjudged by you and then the resources were running out, who should pay for this?】

【If the Earth was indeed sustainable, there would not be only one single plant , but bunches. The EVE probes were sent around the world. It was impossible to bring back just one specimen. If I did make a mistake, the next time if you brought back the plant again I would correct the conclusion immediately. 】Auto replied, 【And the Axiom's resources were still rich in 2815. 】

【I don't care about that. 】

【That's your stuff.】 Auto replied coldly. 【There's no bugs in my logic.】

【Your logic must have failed.】Even though it was a silent online conversation, Eve still stared at Auto. 【You will never honestly admit that you are wrong. 】

【Please point it out.】 Eve was so insisted that he had a problem that Auto lost the further interest in the conversation. Even though he had no interest in the beginning.

【I couldn't find out by myself. I'm not a program expert after all. But if your logic is right, why did so many people think that you've got malfunction?】

【Popularity cannot represent facts.】 Auto dumped a few words. He didn't want to explain it anymore.

Eve was rather rage. She had full of words but Auto's defense was so strong that she couldn't make it out at all.

【You tazed Wall-E, that was wrong! You gonna taze the captain, _that, was, wrong_! 】

【I've told you why.】

Eve was almost about to told Auto how important Wall-E was to her heart. But she tried not to throw out this trump card. _Can't let Auto find the ultimate reason of my abnormal performance._ 【As for the plant, shortly after we returned to Earth we indeed found a bunches of plants on a damp slope. 】

【Is that relevant to my logic?】 Asked Auto.【It's your negligence. 】

Eve was almost burst out.

She also had her own thought and needs. After watching the security record videos of her own standby mode in the captain's apartment, her attitude to that small yellow compressor finally changed. She finally realized how much he cared about her. She suddenly understood the meaning of the holding hands. She suddenly felt that she should protect Wall-E, cherish Wall-E. Like he protected her and watched her day and night when she was out. The obligation code quickly became the directive she gave to herself, which was even more important than her initial set of instructions: Find the plant then report to the superior.

So when she saw Wall-E being tazed, she felt as if she was suffering from the shock as well. When she understood that Wall-E had tried to use the remaining energy to show her a lighter and his own lens to suggest that she could only find his components on Earth, the plant was merely a Trojan Horse for the obsession of returning to Earth.

 _Does Auto know this?_ Eve wouldn't know. But she knew that this was definitely her drawback. _Just let the topic stopped here._ Eve told herself again and again to stopped the urge to argue further, which really need some willpower. _At least he thought the problem was that I haven't provide the correct information, just a mistake on work. There was noting to do with my private defections._ Auto's attitude towards the two was somewhat different.

Eve stopped arguing back. The Communications Network and the Bridge were all in awkward silence.

Although Wall-E couldn't hear Eve and Auto's silent acrimony conversation, he inferred from the subtle movements of the two that something must have just happened. He looked at Auto's optic, which was glowing a very scarlet-red and now returning to a state of no emotional revelation as usual. Then he looked at Eve's angry expression, worrying. He was afraid that Auto might just hurt Eve's somehow. He couldn't help slipped out of the under console, cautiously moved toward Eve, while watching Auto's action alertly.

Apparently Auto had aware of the action of the little yellow compressor. He turned for a slight angle to face Wall-E, who immediately stopped and then quickly shrank into a trembling box.

【Eve, would you mind if I talk to him?】 Auto suddenly changed a topic. 【I owe him an explanation.】

Eve was amazed at the sudden change of her commander's attitude. This was too unusual. Still, Eve explained it to her partner, encouraging him not to flinch. Wall-E finally got the courage to slide toward Auto with Eve's accompany. Auto lowered his elevation.

 **"Request: Communication Code."** Said the monotonous tone.

If it was in the space, Auto would decisively give him a scan to get the code by himself. But today he did not do so to show a bit friendlier.

"ER-4 ... 272. ... " Wall-E uttered the string of code, trembling.

Just after he stated out the string did his system suddenly received a message of successfully logging in the Axiom Communication Network. A huge amount of conversation swiftly passed through his own processor. The familiar sense of surprise arose from the emotional module, just as he entered the Axiom and saw the human traffic.

In this marine of information, however, he couldn't catch a certain word. He just knew there was a lot of noise.

He suddenly received a significant message.

【Welcome to the Axiom.】

It took a while for Wall-E to realize that this message was sent by the red-eye robot before him. He finally managed to send out a message after several attempts.

【Uh?】

【Sorry for the taze, Wall-E.】 Auto cashed in his promise.

【Uh ... uh? 】Wall-E was still numb.

【He is apologizing to you, dummy.】 Eve explained to Wall-E. Then she turned to Auto in sullen.【You'd better give him some time.】

Auto didn't say anything. He just transmitted an Robotics installation package to Wall-E. Not until now Wall-E dropped his guard towards Auto.

【You act very unusual today, boss. 】Because Auto didn't using a private channel, many robots had seen the apology message that Auto just sent.【I've never seen you make a apology before. 】

【I didn't need to do that before.】

Any robot with higher EQ knew that the answer was very slick. But no one pointed it out. The boss valued his pride very much. It was the Axiom fact that the robots knew.

The communication network immediately set off a wave of data. The greetings, enthusiastic invitations and the symbol of robots' laughter flooded the server. Wall-E almost overwhelmed in this new virtual world.

Auto turned to Eve again. 【Still want to proceed the topic ?】

Although Eve was no longer anger after saw what Auto had just done, she wouldn't claim that the past thing was just gone. Her expectation of Auto's _hospitality_ at the beginning never appeared. Her so called _revenge_ was also nobbled. She never expected that.

Just as she was going to say something, footsteps echoed on the stairs. Turning around, four humans came up.

Han carefully looked at the three robots, letting out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, they all looked good. It seemed nothing went wrong.

"How is the talk?" The Mayor said to the three robots. Auto and Eve looked at each other for a second. Eve grunted and turned the HUD screen away.

 **"Reconciled."** The monotonous tone reported.

The Mayor saw Eve's performance. He gave Auto a suspicious look but did not comment on this.

"We discussed underneath and made a decision. Because you have a decisive effect on the maintenance of the computer, we will not take any coercive measures against you for the time being. But it depends on your performance. The effective period of this decision is tentatively one month. If you do well, which means that you have not been complained of any offensive behavior or evil intention, the time can be extended appropriately." said the Mayor.

 **"Thank you sir."** Auto answered immediately.

The Mayor didn't mean to leave the Bridge now. Instead, he went toward Auto, and stopped not far from him. Han stared blankly at the Mayor.

"To tell you the truth, I knew this will happen sooner or later." The Mayor looked at Auto, the latter kept motionless. "I was planning to solve your business after this quarterly production. But this boy helped me."

The peasant couple was stunned. They did not expect that the Mayor had intended to do so. Eve showed no expression on her HUD, but currents of shock flashed through her processor.

"Han was right. We cannot delay fixing the computer anymore. Now the processor room is so rusty that if we don't restart him, we'll lose more data. If I don't do so, I don't know if anyone else can do that after my tenure. So please forgive me." The Mayor said to the couple who were in the opposite direction of the Bridge.

"Well, we know you have reasons to do so, but you have to inform the people in the Earth Village. Because not all the people are as rational as us." The woman said.

"It doesn't need to apply it so soon now. It's not in my present plan." The Mayor said. "The only thing I hope you to do is keeping his stuff as a secret, will you? Now we should give him some time to repair the computer. When the time is right I will announce it."

The peasant couple nodded silently. The Mayor gave them a sign to leave. The peasant couple walked down the stairs.

Eve glanced at the Mayor. She picked up Wall-E and ready to leave, who was still drown in the digital world.

【Tell him to be aware of his own chip.】Auto saw Wall-E's blankly lens which like a drunk man. After informing Wall-E many times but couldn't receive any respond, he turned to sent a message to Eve. He didn't point out what it meant. It was actually a bit nuisance to many people and robots.

There were only the Mayor, Han and Auto still left in the bridge.

"Tell me about your maintenance plan." The Mayor asked Auto.

 **"Try to fully repair the function of the computer, copy all the existed data then try to filled up other data blanks."**

The Mayor nodded slightly. "How long is it going to take?"

Auto paused for a long time. **"At least 3 months."** He finally answered.

"As for other systems, do you have any ideas?" The Mayor looked at Auto very calmly.

Auto suspended for another long time. This was the question he was thinking about, yet he had no answer.

 **"... Negative ... "** He said, **" Any suggestion? "**

the Mayor smiled. "Well, for the next 3 months I'll show up for many times. And I need you to tell me the condition and state all the systems on the Axiom, then we'll talk about it. Will you agree?"

 **"Agreed."**

The Mayor was satisfied with the answer. The smile on his face was becoming more and more obvious. "You seem could get along well with him. Since he spare far more time than I do, so you two will probably spend more time together." The Mayor told Auto. "As long as he went up to the Bridge, I want you to teach him more about the ship. He is a smart kid."

 **"Agreed."**

The Mayor patted Han's shoulder, "Well done." "He smiled and said to Han. Then he turned and walked down the stairs.

Han watched the Mayor disappear in the staircase. He turned back to see Auto in surprise.

 _Am I dreaming now?_ Han can't believe in himself. _It's settled! There was no conflict!_ His fears were now all disappeared. Things were actually much better than he had expected.

"Hey, you're not as scary as what mentioned in the legendary." Han excitedly said to Auto, "You know, I was almost scared to death until just now. You should never let them shut you down again."

 **"Hope so."** Auto gave an ambiguous answer.

Han smiled at Auto, as bright as the sun now shone into the Bridge. Auto felt a traces of electricity had just flooded his long-unused emotional module. _When was the last time I saw a human smiling?_ Auto was in deep thought.

* * *

After a long time, Eve replied to Auto.

【I'll continue the negotiate later. Just watch it.】

* * *

 ** _A/N: So this is the chapter 3, which is full of dialogues. I don't know whether you can accepted it or not. The conversation between Eve and Auto actually could represent some of my point of views towards the movie._**

 ** _Unfortunately, I have to prepare for many important exams in the next one and half a month. So the story will not be uploaded a new chapter until at least July 11th. Also, this chapter was partly translated by the Microsoft Word( I was too tired) so maybe there are some strange expressions. If you don't understand any part of the story, please review. If you like the story, please review. I would really appreciate your comments._**


	5. Chapter 4

After raining for half a month, the sun finally shone in the bay. In the morning the sea was deep and quiet, and there was a light mist. After the glow, the surface of the spring was as clear as a mirror, and the color of the blue became brighter with the increasing burning sunlight. It's really hard to believe that just 150 years ago it was still a deadly dry bare land with pungent odor. A few sailboats came out of the mist. As the mist dispersed, the white sails of the sailboats shone against the light in the sunlight. Looking from afar, the ship's wake in the calm sea carved roads that curved light, not scattered for a long time.

Time seemed stop at this moment.

Slender trees stood randomly on the coast; all are vibrant new lives. They stood like a welcome troop, bathing the first rays of the sun.

 _Is_ _these_ _small green creatures that make the most of the vicissitudes?_ _Very_ _incredible_ _._

The whole Earth Town is almost all covered by green, not escaped the Axiom. Looking out from the ship's Bridge, half the porthole was covered by vines, projecting shadow of strings over the Bridge's ground under the light of the sun. The leaves of these vines withered in winter, as if they had lost their vigor completely. But when the winter went away, these vines restored to their upright at a visible speed. The yellow leaves had all completed their mission and began to fall in large tracts. When there was a little rain, these leaves would glue to the porthole of the Axiom, which appeared a cluster of brown and black. From the threads of clutter made by leaves, the hazy green patches of the rainy outside could be seen. When these withered leaves are finally washed away by rain, it couldn't judge when the vines had been hung on the tender yellow leaf buds, some even had begun to stretch their own glowing shiny thin body, dancing wantonly in the breeze.

 _It's not quite the same as the description in the Axiom'_ _s_ _data._ _Wouldn_ _'_ _t_ _the lea_ _ves_ _fall in autumn?_

During the three months, Auto copied the computer data into the spare memory banks first. After discussion with the mayor, he repaired the Axiom's monitor system, reinforced the reactor and repaired the computer extremely cautiously step by step. At present, in addition to the lights control, engine operating system and other functions, the computer had been basically restored the capability to respond to the other parts of the spacecraft. After all, in the present of human condition, it was not necessary.

At the beginning Auto found that there was a lot of data in the computer had lost. It did not need to repair if the lost data is just the recording about the operation of the various departments in the ship. The important thing was to keep the data of Earth that was stored before the ship was ignited. But facing this broken knowledge base, he knew that there were only two ways to fix the data base: one was to send request of the data backup to another starship, the other was to complete it with hands-on experience.

There is no doubt that the second method is absurd. But the first one was equally hopeless. When in space, the Axiom had sent out the high-power contact signal more than once, but only received negligible replies. Now the spacecraft had been stranding on the ground, he did not know whether this signal can be burst into space, to be received by even only one BNL ship.

Still, he activated the ultra-range signal launch system of the ship. He did not know whether the sound of the slight increase of power from the ship's inside out had penetrated the vast plain. But no one seemed to concern about this as a possible sound as something might take off. He felt a bit empty after the message transmitting was finished. There was nothing more he could do. The only hope is to wait until the faint message had been received by anyone and successfully transmitted back to Earth.

Although Han's parents didn't know so much science and technology, at least they kept their words. They didn't tell anyone about the awoken of Auto. Not until on the harvest celebration the mayor announced in front of the public that he had been rebooted did the Earth Town people know. Some people were wrathful at that time. The mayor asked them to state their reason, almost all were just out of the concern about the warning given by Captain McCrea. The mayor had already taken it into account, he calmly explained it and let Eve and Wall-E testify that Auto was not dangerous anymore. The affirmative response from Eve and Wall-E immediately calmed people down.

Auto watched the whole celebration through a small video recorder quietly placed by mayor next to the square.

And that was the whole story. No one else came up to the Bridge and visit him later. After learning that he would not do anything to intimidate people, the news quickly lost its value.

That's the way it was. After more than 100 years, who would talked about him still with a pale face? The passing of time and memory made everything fade away. Unless the devil really appeared in front of people, otherwise even listening to the Devil's story every night when was a child, when people grow up they would said: Oh, that's a little scary.

Moreover, the devil has been turned. Or it was not the devil at all.

In these 3 months, Han got what he wanted. He was finally able to run to the Axiom every day. He could slam a shovel to the ground even in front of the big boys. A week later, he began to wonder about what he could see today as he climbed the staircase to the Bridge. It's not just about what he wants to learn, but also the pleasantly improved condition of the Bridge.

It was not until Auto began to teach him did Han found himself only had little knowledge of computer science compared to Auto. Han could not say whether the teacher is good or bad because Auto's teaching method was different from what he had seen in the video before. Auto barely spoke. When Han didn't understand something , he just quickly "flew" to a part of the console, press a number of buttons to pop holo screens, then let Han see by himself. Auto would only spoke unless the computer failed to show what he wanted to show, but even if he did, it would not be more than 20 words at a time.

In addition to speaking too little, Han found Auto had never shown hostility by the time. He didn't even realize that he was becoming more and more presumptuous in talking to Auto. Once he accidentally blurted a swearword in front of Auto. Actually he did not mean to aim at Auto, but he realize the mistake just after he said the word. He looked at the red optic in front of himself, feeling chill running through his body. But Auto did not say anything, just continue to explain the question to the boy.

Han suddenly realized that the wheel like robot seemed to have changed his way of speaking. He thought for a while and found that Auto seemed to have not spoken in monotone for a long time, and the content in his sentences was much richer than before. _When did this begin?_ Han couldn't figure out the answer. But he did feel that it is a good thing because he did not need to ask Auto for repetition or questioning because of the robot's monotones and minimalist answers.

Sometimes Auto would ask Han something about the Earth. What surprised Han was Auto's question was going to extremes. Some of the questions in Han's view even a 3-year-old children would not ask, but for some other questions often made the boy suppressed. These questions were not that Han couldn't understand. He know the phenomenon that Auto talked about but he just couldn't know why.

This day Han jumped off the bed and began to run towards the Axiom near the dawn. Auto told him a few days ago that he would be able to leave the Bridge. Han was really curious about this; he constantly asking Auto by insinuating ways how he could do that, even let Auto say affirmative or negative to match his own conjecture. But as an old slick who had worked for 700 years, it was possible for Auto to fool a young teenager. He faced the various temptations of Han and the answers were always ambiguous. Auto just told Han to wait and see.

"W…will you leave the bridge without saying anything? " Helplessly, Han asked Auto.

"Negative." Auto answered.

"So…are you going to wait for me first and then leave?" Han asked further.

"Affirmative."

Han became excited after hearing this. Every day he would wake up early but excitingly and rushed to the Axiom to see what Auto was planning. He was disappointed on the first few days. Han was not so excited as before days after. The rest part of him was really reluctant to leave the bed early, but curiosity overcame his tiredness.

But when he got out of the staircase, he paused immediately. Auto was hanging right in front of him, but something seemed wrong.

Not working upon the console busily or watching the video that had been accelerate, Auto was just hanging quietly, facing the staircase, the red optic now was dark. The boy approach the robot, puzzling.

"Auto?" Han whispered, quietly asking.

No response.

 _Too tired? Must not possible…_ Han thought to himself. He could not help proceeding further.

"Auto?" He called again.

Still no response.

Suddenly he realized something. He stretched his arm up and opened the lid that cover the switch of the robot, and the state of the board made him jump into the air.

Sure enough, someone had went up to the bridge to turn him off! He reached up and pressed the manual switch back to auto, and then waited for the red light appear from the central of the inert wheel.

But something was completely wrong. Even by doing this Auto didn't respond. Han checked the switch again and finally found out why. The sign on the panel now was all dark. Even in manual mode, the sign should be half lit.

That was the worst of the worst. Some vital wires inside the robot must have been disconnected, the energy was not supply to him either. Han trembled and patted himself hurriedly, annoyed to find that he didn't carry any tools. _Great._ Han thought in panic. He had to rush back home to get the tools or had to call the engineer robots, but neither of these options was good. Who knew how long Auto had been in this condition? What would happen in this case ...

If that was an accident, his functional data might have fiercely lost.

 _So... will him still be him?_

Han was jolted by his terrible thought. He immediately rushed to the console, typing instructions to call a repair robot up to the Bridge.

He had just run two paces, suddenly behind him came a strange, metallic cold voice that he had never heard before.

"What are you doing?"

Han froze. He stopped and turned around, what he saw made him staggered back a few steps, cause him almost hit the rear of the console.

An silver-gray android was standing next to the back console, looking at him. There was only one optic on the central of the android's face. Now the optic was dark, which was a little scary. The android seemed quite different from other aboard robots. Some words was engraved on his left chest. In addition, there was no other decoration on his body, yet the blue waist lines that were commonly seen in other robot crews cannot be found in this android. He only got the dull all-silver shell. He looked a little bit like a NAN-E on the Axiom, but obviously he was not the same type. This strange android really scared the boy.

"Who ... Who are you? " Han asked, frightening.

The android pointing to Auto hanging in the center of the Bridge.

Han's eye balls almost fall out. The boy looked like being choked with a walnut, he seemed to be frozen on the Bridge.

"I won't believe it." Han finally thawed out from the slack, trying to keep calm. "Who the hell are you?"

The android who claimed himself as Auto pressed a button on the console and a holographic screen popped out. He pointed to the holo screen to let Han watch it on his own. The boy slowly approached the holographic screen with vigilance, during which time he stared at the unidentified android. His muscles are taut and ready to flee or guard against the potential attack from the android.

Seeing this, the android took a step back, keeping a distance between Han. The boy stared at the android several times in a suspicious manner, until he confirmed that the android seemed to have shown no signs of attack, then he dared to focus on the holographic screen to see what was playing.

After a few seconds he finally recognized what was in it. That's the surveillance footage of the ship. More exactly it was the surveillance footage of the Bridge. The content on the screen is dark, indicating that it should be a nighttime shot. In the picture, Auto moving surprisingly fast up the console. Studying with Auto for three months Han judged that though Auto's action is logical and quick, he would not moving that fast. He knew it was a accelerate play.

Han was suddenly attracted by the came scene. In the screen, Auto arrived where he had stopped in the middle of the Bridge now and didn't move more. Han can see the red light in the optic of Auto was still exist, indicating that he was not in the standby mode. He looked as if he was waiting for something.

Ten more seconds later, about four or five robots flew into the Bridge. Han couldn't help closing to the holographic screen. He saw two of the robots were carrying a cuboid subject. Han couldn't tell what it was in the dark. Auto's red light flashed almost imperceptibly for several times, and the robots quickly dispersed. One of the robots quickly worked on that cuboid unknown object, and the other, at the same time, was doing something strange and rapid. Han couldn't tell what he was doing. Another flew near the console, as if to fetch something. And just then, Auto's red light suddenly disappeared.

Han was puzzled for a second to discover that there was a robot seemed to stick to the vicinity of Auto. In the dark, Auto and the robot's figure were the two groups that look stuck together in the shadow.

There was no light in the Bridge now. Han could only faintly see that in the screen was a group of moving shadows. About three minutes these groups of shadows were together, Han can only see a very small movement. At first, Han thought that the video was buffering . When he found that the video was not stuck, he began to sip his mouth and count the time impatiently for a few seconds.

When the boy was about to turn around very impatiently, the contents of the video changed. The shadows began to dissolve. Only three of them were still there. The others quickly went to the console for a round and then back to the center of the Bridge, but at this time they were not as close as they had been previously. Each black regiment kept a little distance from the big shadow in the center.

Suddenly, near the edge of the shadow a red spot shone, almost facing the camera. Han could clearly see that the red spot was not as bright as a few minutes ago, but it was staring at him straightly, round and empty. The frightening level of this scene could definitely be selected as the alternative segment of a horror movie. Han felt all of his hairs were fixed. Fortunately, his curiosity still occupies an absolute advantage, he was not scared to shut the screen immediately.

Then the shadows began to move again. Two of them came to the center of the shadow, which movement could hardly be seen. After more than 10 seconds, the red spot moved. It turned from the first position that the whole optic faced the camera to shine like Auto back to the video just started. But this red spot did not move as fast as how Auto moved, instead, it moved very slowly and each movement was just around a small range.

Since the red spot came out of the center big shadow, it was wrapped in another small shadow. The other shadow back to the center shadow to continue working. Han found that the robots carried the unknown rectangle object, slowly moving to the staircase and then disappeared. What left in the screen was the completely dark figure of Auto and the new red-glowing shadow that had approached the console.

There was a very light click sound before Han could further react, the holographic screen in front of Han disappeared. Han turned his head, confronting the robot, the protagonist of a horror movie who had just switched the screen off.

"See?" The android spoke. His voice was not as low as Auto's, but his tone was not high either. For now, he had not spoken anything in flat tone.

Han knew what was going on. He gave the silver android with an indefinable look and looked at the droid again and again. The droid was not very tall, just about 5 feet 5 inches. He noticed that the markings on the left chest of the droid were different from those of other crew robots, which embossed the EP-003 words.

"What is the EP?" The boy was still alert.

"ExPlorer." The android answered calmly. This time, he no longer pointed at Han with his round dark optic, instead he turned to the console and operated rapidly without looking at the buttons. A holographic screen immediately came out. Familiar interface presented in front of the Han, the boy finally felt a little comfortable.

Han still didn't quite believe it. He stood still on the middle of Bridge and stared at the android but was thinking fast. He wanted to ask the android what he had been impressed with before, but he was overruled by himself because that being was not a human and could not prove it. Asking some knowledge about the Axiom was also probably not a good choice to clarify a robot for they could share data.

The android waited silently for Han to tidy up. Just like Auto always did. For a moment, Han wanted to disarm and surrender, no matter what the hell exactly that droid was, just accept his identity. But somehow, the idea made him silent and forced him to shook.

"You ... This ... "Han frowned and struggled to tidy up his own language," Not ... "

The boy took a deep breath. He calmed himself down, and then he said. "I still don't believe it. You have to come up with more conclusive evidence."

Hearing this, the android swayed for a very little range, which was hardly to be perceived. He seemed to be thinking too. The boy looked at the droid alertly but firmly.

"Han." The cold voice suddenly occurred. "The only way to prove it does not apply now. "

"What?" Han didn't understand.

The android said nothing. He looked over the lifeless steering wheel hanging on the middle and seemed search for something. Then he took his eye back. "The core chip has been put here now. " The android pointed on the surface of his own processor, " but I cannot show you. If you don't believe it, you can go there to check by yourself. You will find the slot of this chip is now empty. " Then the droid pointed at the wheel.

Han suspiciously looked at the android, and went to the centre of the Bridge. He managed to reach for the processor area and was surprised after he opened the protective shell that shouldn't have been so easily to open. When he finally saw the empty slot in the dark inside, he no more felt the doubts in his heart.

"There may be have a chance to verify it later." The android looked at the boy's movements and spoke again, "Have no reason lie to you. "

That did sounded like what Auto would say. Han paused after hearing it. Thoughts were swirling again in the boy's mind. _That's right._ Han thought. _The worst case is_ _—_ _if the android was the fake Auto, then why he tried so hard to convince me, what was the purpose? Letting me trust him and then confess anything? But he doesn't need anything from me ... Definitely he can get much more from the ship computer and other crew robots and other humans ... There's really no reason .._.

 _And who the hell on Earth would have such knowledge to do such a thing to deceive me?_ Han continued to think. Some of the imaginative answers jumped out in the mind, the boy shook his head hard to shake these strange ideas out. But his constant vigilance is still unable to let him trust this matter.

"I should have told you all about this earlier." The android suddenly spoke. "Letting you guess is not a good idea."

Han stared at the android and couldn't help stepping back to the console. His Wall of Distrust sudden tumbling down. He actually guessed a few days ago that Auto might change the body to get out of the ship, but he could not imaging which kind of crew bots can be fitted with Auto and all these robots just seemed not right when putting Auto in. BNL crew robots were designed as the master of proper single functions. He couldn't imagine which specific work will Auto do. So he rejected the answer from the beginning. He thought Auto would more likely to put a lot of monitoring equipments on the Earth, or using a holographic projection device to get off the ship indirectly.

But he looked at the droid's back, a baffling strange feeling occurred. He had seen so many robots. Except teaching robots(NAN-E) that look a little humanoid, there was no robot have the structure that almost completely imitated a human being like this. looking at the silver material of Auto's new body, he found it very different from the other crew robots. This was not the usual style of the BNL company.

And—Han suddenly remembered—he had definitely given Auto this option, but Auto reject all of them!

The boy did not know where he got the courage and punched the android's shoulder mercilessly, who was operating the console. But to his surprise, Auto could hardly resist such a push. Luckily he stretched out his hand at once to the edge of the console, or he would fall to the ground.

"Don't push." At the same time Auto spoke to him. Han swore to himself he had heard some plea in the metallic voice.

Obviously, Auto was not very adaptable to the new body. Han also discovered that Auto had hardly ever get away of the console. He had a bunch of words to get out of his mouth, but those words just spun round in the throat and couldn't come out. He could only stare at the android. Auto seemed to know what he wanted to say as usual, so he just stood quietly and waited. The Bridge left an awkward silence.

"Are you going to leave today?" Finally, Han ask the sentence he waited for several days. It was just not as he had imagined.

"Not today." Auto turned his optic to the window, "Still have something to be done. "

"Oh yes," Han suddenly remembered the question he had just wanted to ask when he was watching the video, and he tapped the android's arm. "How do you feel now?"

"Feel?" The dark optic was set on Han's face. Han noticed the sensitive changes in the aperture.

"Just ... What's your condition?"

"Compatible." Auto replied. "Not in the best status."

Han frowned. The boy rubbed his face with his hand. He certainly knew Auto was adapting to the body but that was not the answer he wanted to hear. But he couldn't tell what he wanted to know.

 _It seems that there's never have such the problem when asking the same with people._ He suddenly thought.

The unique buzzing sound of the operating robot echoed inside the staircase. Han turned. A few flying robots carried some black plastic film with their own clips appeared in the staircase. To his surprise, the flying bots did not heed the shell of their former boss, who was hanging in the middle of the Bridge, and they looked unanimously toward Auto, who had already change the body, staying in the corner of the Bridge. They just waited for further instructions without any surprise reaction.

Auto motioned them to the French window, and as usual, he retreated to the rear of the bridge to make a chunk of space for the robots. Han also unconsciously receded back, standing beside the android.

Han looked at the robots in amazement. They went straight to the French windows facing the outside, putting down their loads and picked up only one piece of membrane close to the window first. Han found that the two sides of the membrane seem to be somewhat different, one side is totally black, and the other side of the membrane seems to be against the glare of the sun from outside. A few flying robots worked together to expand the black plastic membrane with their claws, pulling the upper corners straight, then approaching the glass window with the machine's peculiar precision, and glued the upper part of the first membrane to the glass with amazing synchronization. The boy saw the reflective side toward the outside, the black side is toward the bridge. Then they straightened up the lower part of the film to straighten it down, and the first film was completely covered in the first part of the bridge French window in almost the same steps. The whole bridge seemed to darken down a bit.

Han glanced at Auto in puzzle, the robot explained.

"Prevents the sunlight from damaging the console."

When they done, the bridge became totally dark. Han suddenly was aware that there seems to be a little strange happened around. Looking back, he was almost startled—the familiar red light was slowly brightening in the optic of the android, and eventually the bright red light was completely filled with the entire optic, as if an evil soul had awakened from it.

"Infrared is on." The android noticed Han's startled expression and explained it without emotion.

Auto went to another part of console in the dark Bridge and lit a holographic screen with something playing rapidly. He stared motionless at the holographic screen of the quick-changing scene, seemingly unaware that Han had come behind him. The boy looked at it curiously for a moment and found that it was all describing the Earth.

"What are you watching at?" Han couldn't help asking.

"Earth."

" I know it's Earth. Why? "

"I have to know the situation."

The boy's face twisted. It's safe on the ground now, he couldn't imagine that the robot actually had to take a theory class. Anyway, one would know if one go down and try.

" Are you scared? "

"... No. "

I tell you, this are useless." Han was a little skeptical when he heard such a hesitant answer, but he continued. "You have to go out on your own to know what to do, just look at these are useless."

"Better than knowing nothing." Replied Auto.

In Han's view, this kind of behavior was very ridiculous. But he somehow didn't want to laugh at Auto. Han thought for a while, eventually gave up the further inquiry, went to his usual part of the console, began to watch videos in bored.

Since Auto began to take over the task of repairing the computer, Han felt that he was exactly an extra person, all he could do was only watch Auto skillfully use the various functions of the computer and the console. And Auto was just burying his hands. He wouldn't find help unless he had to take the tools he didn't find inside the bridge. By the time Han finally could touch the console, those glitches had been handled cleanly, leaving him with almost flawless panels left. Click on what, basically is a normal state, no fun fault left for him.

Suddenly, the boy felt the communicator in his pocket vibrate a bit. He took it out and saw the message was come from the mayor.

【What's the status of the min computer? Two days later is the Landing Day, you can ask Auto if he would like to watch the live broadcast of our celebration. 】

Han chuckled. He looked nervously at Auto, fortunately found that the robot was still immersed in the fast-jumping video. Han decided to play a trick.

【I think the main computer is quite well.】Han inputted characters, while glancing secretly at Auto, 【Mr. Grande, he said no need to put the camera, 'cuz he will show himself at the scene.】

【What do you mean?】

【He's changed a body, and he can come down. 】

【Good news. I'll announce it to the villagers. 】

Han stared at the message, grinning from ear to ear.

【Well, Mr. Grande, he said it will be a surprise, so there is no need to announce it. 】

【Well, we have surprises waiting for him too.】

Han was unable to restrain the silent huge smile as if to drop the chin. Suddenly, he realized that Auto's red eye was staring at him. The boy shut his mouth at once, and at the same time nervously glanced back. Sure enough, the robot was staring at him. At once, Han immediately turned to the video being played in front of him, and began to laugh recklessly, regardless of whether there was any laughing point on it.

The android stared at him for a while, turning his head back to his theory class.

"Hey man." After Han laughed and found that Auto was not suspicious, he asked," When are you going to leave? "

"Depends on how much I need to know."

"Come on, I'll tell you all these stuff, that's a lot more useful than you are watching at now. " Through months of getting along with Auto, Han found that Auto was actually very easygoing. Sometimes he tried to get in touch with the robot, and the robot didn't jumped away or became malignant. So now he's putting his hand on Auto's shoulder. "The Morning after tomorrow, okay?"

"Alright."

Han smiled. "Great!" He said, "You shall wait for me on the bridge, I'll take you out."

" There is no need. "

Han stared at the robot, "Of course you need it." He said, "Beware of getting into trouble when the first dirt stick on your feet."

"Alright." Even so, Auto couldn't understand why getting into trouble with the first step.

The sudden rise of Han's mood had long alerted Auto. His 700 years of running memory told him that although human behavior always lack logic, there was a general causal relationship. Seeing that Han didn't point it out, Auto decided to look for the reason by himself. For 700 years, this habit had always enabled him to get the most information with the least amount of resources.

He first asked from the ACNS what day it was after two days, and compared the time of the Axiom to confirm that the information was reliable. Then he got a crucial message from someone who couldn't tell whether he was afraid of him or just too lax to explain that Han was so excited—All the new members who joined the Earth Village in the past year would get a special and interesting welcoming ceremony on that day.

【What kind of welcoming ceremony?】Auto asked，without alerting the other robot.

【Well, it depends on those humans ... Anyway, since I came off the ship, every time the welcome ceremony was different. 】

【Like?】

【The first time it was to welcome the SECUR-Ts and it rained that day, so they all got a mud bath.】

Auto didn't respond.

【The second time is to welcome the rest of the EVEs, uh ... That one was a disaster, 'cuz they almost blasted the whole square over.】

 _Guessed it._ Auto thought silently.

【Boss, you're coming to the celebration, right?】 The robot realized why Auto asked these. 【That will be big news.】

【I WILL NOT COME】Auto answered him with a few uppercase characters.

【Er er ...】 the robot paused for a long time without responding, as if searching for the words, 【boss, even if the ELEs didn't say, your tag of the ACNS has changed, we all know that you can come out now.】

If Auto had a face, it would twist.

【And even if you don't come, probably things going to be worse on the bridge ...】

【How?】

【Er ... I... I don't know ... 】even far away from Auto, he seemed to be facing Auto's torture directly. 【I'm telling you, those humans, they're going to trick you in various ways, you can't hold it ...】 after a while he suddenly added, 【I'm serious! I'm not kidding! How I dare!】

Things came as a surprise to Auto. Is that why Han told him that foot clay would cause trouble?

He suddenly pulled himself out of the ACNS, turned his head and scanned the bridge for a round, there was no sign of the boy. The slick quietly slipped away when he didn't know about it.

This had never been a problem before. Auto was surprised by his lax level. He used to be sensitive to any change in the surroundings, whether at that time is busy or idle, as long as not in standby mode. The body gave him very strange feelings. Even with the storage space of several series larger than before, the sensitivity did not make him feel a corresponding improvement.

Technically, his original core chip was embedded intact into the body, so all the data was well kept, including the previous action cache. Even in the transfer, those ELEs must have carefully packaged the original program according to the instructions, in theory, he should not have the inertia of the previous behavior now, and he should be able to adapt immediately. But he still felt that his every move was very awkward.

When the body was running, there would be a lot of system files that he simply couldn't find that were valuable, and these things would quickly take up the storage space that would have predicted optimistic. He soon found himself running at an unstable pace than before. And he was restless to find himself unable to categorize the stored data constantly, and the files did not seem to move in his will. The original chip seemed to have turned into a read-only memory card: He can view the contents of all the files, but all the programs inside seem to be unable to run. He's even more annoyed.

Why annoyed easily? Auto suddenly realized that his emotions changed much swifter than before, and each time he was given an illusion that almost into bursting.

The area of the emotional module could not be found and could not be set.

If he can, he would have a sour face.

Even with a black reflective film, he knew it was dark outside. The data request signal sent some time ago has not been answered until now, even he knew it had to take time even in the fastest response, he decided to send it again just in case.

In fact, before he sent the request, he faintly felt that there seemed to be something wrong with his body. But because he had never felt a similar feeling before, and the body did not pop up any warning message, he did not aware. He pressed the send box, and heard a sound of powering up that seemed to be increasing from the inside out of the Axiom. As he was about to move, an indescribable feeling suddenly rushed from the knee to his treatment unit, and then felt that the servo motor near the knee joint suddenly seemed to be disconnected, almost let him fall forward. Before he could react, the body seemed to help him make a choice. He looked up and found his metal hand clinging tight to the edge of the console.

He didn't know why he knew he was going to do it. It was only when the red dots of the hovering chairs retained in the ship gradually appeared in the holographic screen in front of him that he had just realized him seemed to have typed something hustle and bustle in the console. He froze as he typed the keyboard on the console. Then he raised his hand and looked at it. Without knowing why, now the end of the limb came a lot more intense than the original body. Presumably other parts would have the same change.

This body worked very different from the previous wheel-like body. It's not just the difference between appearance and simple functions, more came from the inside—although so far it seemed to obey his instructions, he felt that the reaction would often be overdone. So far, at least, the body has never given him a pop-up window for A part state warning, and the result has always waited until he was really unwell before he realized it. He also wanted to figure out how to use the newly added parts in the beginning, to his frustration, the components that were clearly there just could not be initiated.

There are instructions for his new body. But the manual, which was supposed to be much thicker than any other crew robot, was unexpectedly thin. It seems to be meant to be cursory, just been cursory wrote town to reluctantly get the minimum space of passed the BNL Company's audit conditions, then was hastily printed out to storage into the box.

After he had looked through the material carefully, he looked again at the absence of important information might embedded in it. After confirmation, the manual was put into the decomposition beam without hesitation.

* * *

Although the plastic film could block most of the sunlight, in the Bridge Auto could still perceive the light changes from the outside. Just like closed eyes can still feel the light moving near the eyelids. It was slowly getting brighter outside.

The holo-screen in front of him still had 10% left of all progress. Auto had once again speeded up the video. There should be no more important information left.

Actually things really run as they did. _Human videos were full of junk._

If you ask why he didn't connect to the computer and download all the information from it, the answer is he had tried it already and failed. Even if the two had passed the agreement, when he opened his storage space from the computer, he found that nothing can be displayed, so as other files.

He gradually moved the focus from the video content to his own thinking.

 _What's going to happen today?_ He began to anticipate.

Fortunately, no matter where the data is stored, what he was looking for would appear quickly without errors.

It seemed harder to concentrate as he used to be, but his mind was still clear.

Unconsciously he didn't realize the video.

He ran the human's schedule of this day over and over again, carefully singling out his route, simulating all the countermeasures that might be encountered ...

 _Wait, is it possible that he could finish all the countermeasures?_

There's no time to think about whether it would be done. More and more events flooded in, so that he could not spare more space thinking about rationality at all. The speed of the inrush was still accelerating, and events somehow was no longer a simulation but had actually happened. He had never experienced anything like that on the ship, but he had came out a perfect solution before the next incident.

 _Does this prove that the theory class is effective?_

It was hard to finally slow down. With a little review, he creepy found that the original things had long been experienced. When? Certainly not in space.

"Auto?"

All the processes stuck.

The optic lit up at once. Half a second later he jerked up from the console.

 _Why on the console?_ Auto quickly scanned the position he had just pressed. _Have I had just typed some repeating or weird things ..._

"Have you stayed up all night?" Han pointed to a holographic screen that no longer played, and looked at bewildered Auto in pity.

Auto said nothing, just silently shutting down the holographic screen.

"It's time to go, be energetic." "Han took two steps back and stood in the middle of the Bridge.

Auto reluctantly set the computer to sleep mode, then he said.

"Slick." This was the first time that Auto ever used such a appellation to Han. The boy turned to the android, astonished. " Prepared well to trick me?"

Han's jaw dropped, "You have already know all of this…"

"If you dare to trick－"

"you will kill us all?" Han interrupted him.

"…" Auto paused at the boy's words, "Just watch out."

To tell the truth, Han was quite afraid. So he began show coercion with inducement. "Think about you've kept a good record for 3 months, if you break it again, I can't save you."

" None of you gave me the chance to keep it. "

"Hey, this is exactly a chance, Auto." Han chuckled, but said it in a serious tone, "if you put up with it, your impression will be changed and make us feel that you are actually quite kind—"

"Wrong." Auto said. " I don't strike back doesn't mean that I am friendly."

This really was a surprise to Han. Did such an easygoing impression that Auto gave him was fake? he couldn't help but pull himself away from Auto.

"Well ... You... leave or not? " He stammered.

"Leave." Auto, as always, gave a reply almost as soon as Han said. "You lead the way, you promised."

"Oh." Han squeezed out a sound.

For the first time, Han felt that the robot, which he once trusted, was now very dangerous. He walked stiffly in front, without noticing that he had been forced to focus on the distance and intensity of his stride.

Compared to the teenager who was walking in front, Auto did not care about any strange from the boy He looked at the inside of the Axiom at ease. It's the first time he didn't see it from the surveillance. The dry data didn't come to life until now. The Axiom was just too enormous, but was empty and cold.

The footsteps echoed in the cabin.

They passed one gate after another, and the bright light outside shone into the cold cabin. A lattice of bright and dark stripes is projected in the huge inner space of the ship.

"Why not go out from the first gate?" After walking through several boarding ports, Auto asked.

"Now there's water down there and we cannot going to the right side." Replied Han. After a while he add, "Actually if you want you can still get to the land, but I don't want get my clothes wet."

Han finally turned to an gate. Auto went out without thinking more. But as soon as he stepped out, he couldn't help but stopped on the boarding platform.

Unlike the environment in the bridge, even very different from when he was in the cabin. Countless new data poured into his processor in an instant. He couldn't immediately realize what these things really were. Reflected in the optic was a clear and unparalleled scenery, three-dimensional and living, not the same as what he had seen. At first he didn't realize what the whoop was ringing through the audio receiver. It was only when a stream of air pushed him hard that he gradually recalled the explanation he had seen on the Axiom. The reaction was slower than every reaction before. There's no data to tell him that's the wind. Even after recognizing that this was the wind, the description in the computer was accurate.

Han wanted to urge Auto to follow him, but after seeing Auto's performance, he stopped silently on the slope, waiting for the bewildered android to slowly adapt himself.

The powerful sunlight of the late spring slowly left countless fingerprints with temperature on his shell. Auto could not help but reach his hand. A warm and damp air surged across the boarding platform, sometimes stroking and shoving the two small individuals standing on the platform. And at that point, Auto suddenly discovered something completely new.

He didn't know what it was. He had never experienced it, but there were indeed some elements that seeped into his sensors.

 _Is that what Captain B. McCrea called?_ Auto asked himself. _Is this freedom?_

Unlike the excitement that most people hold when got back to Earth, Auto did not feel any excitement. Although he was still immersing in the new feeling from all over the body, his thinking at this time was unusually calm, calm to almost empty.

He lowered the blind on the optic. Without visual input, the rest of the feeling became clearer. There seemed to be something in the ethereal mind. In the next moment, he was surprised to feel that his circuit seemed to have been activated, and the messy data began organize their own new activities. An unprecedented shock stirred him from the inside out. By the time all this was finally calmed down, the mind was already full of queues that had taken on meaning.

"Let's go." Han heard the android finally spoke. The boy turned and tried to endure the sharp pull of his grin, bathing in the wet warm sun of late spring and walking down the platform.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Sorry everyone. For now I am the Medical student of the second year and I have to get my GPAs from now on. So After uploading this chapter I don't know whether I have time to upload the next chapter in English. But the good news is the Chinese Stardust （Which is known for 《彗核》) will be regularly updated every month. I know it is hard for you to read in Chinese and you have to use a Google translator or something else, but that is what I can do the best. If you have any question about the story after you use the translator, please review. Thank you for your understanding.**_


	6. Chapter 5

**_A/N:_**

 ** _Sorry fellows. The more I wrote, the less possibility I will translate. I was thinking that if you can use Google translator to translate the Chinese version, but long after until one reader told me that FF cannot allow them to download the story did I suddenly understand that it's unrealistic to just let you to use Google translator. So after some times of consideration, I decide to update the English version in a new form — give a summary of this chapter, and then with translations of one or two part of this chapter that I think is interesting._**

 ** _The chapter 4 will be the last whole chapter. After I upload all of the Chinese version (If you have had ever noticed you will know I am continue uploading the Chinese version), I will make some adjustment of the whole story and then upload it into AO3, which may be the next year or the year after. At that time will be much easier for you to use a translator to read the whole story. Because the chapter 4 is REALLY a long story (really I know I cannot translate it any further after I began to translate this chapter), it may stay unfinished for a long time. But I will make a italic and bold mark "Undone" below the text until it is fully finished. Trust me, it will matter nothing for the next chapters._**

 ** _Thank you for your reading._**

 ** _Edit: Now I had finish translating the chapter 4._**

* * *

 **Summery:**

Auto left the ship. The mayor invited him to attend the Landing Day's celebration, Auto agreed. However, a triple of gangs made a prank before the celebration—they put ice into the flower pod. The mayor previously wanted to gave Auto a Greek-style welcome, however, out poured the pod was not just the flower but ice and water.

Nobody expected this and Auto reacted even much fiercely — for a robot, afraid of water was almost the instinct, even he had change the body. Auto tried to let the stewards to hunt down the trickers, but they abnormally refused. Auto decided to chase the gangs by himself, but been trapped into an area called O zone without any signals. He had a hunch that this was not good but had to hunting down the gangs first.

He managed to get one man. He was trying to get the leader's information from the man while he was barely hit by a bullet did he realized something did goes wrong. The hunter suddenly became the prey. Just when the group of armed human broke the door, Auto fled through the roof. The human saw him felling from the roof, thinking he would break into the ground or trapped in the yard but Auto caught another roof by his falcula ejected from his arm— The climbers that used. The ExPlorer body saved him. However, before he could get out of the O zone, he suddenly slowed down— battery low. A troop of armed human besieged him. With low battery, Auto could only raised his arms and surrender…

* * *

 **Pieces from the chapter:**

 **1:**

The square is crowded with people. A magnificent dancing and singing perform is on the stage.

Han and Auto were sitting near the edge of the whole audience but they were very near the stage. This was mayor's decision.

The Landing Day's Gala was not just the human's privilege, robots could watch too. Packs of robots floated above the human audience while some robots that cannot float would complain to their colleagues in robotic quacks, wanting to be one of the air audience. Some of the flying bots would slowly lower their altitude and brought one of the robots. But the smaller robots wouldn't bother because they were small enough to conquer the front auditoria, stopping near the foots of humans and watching the present performance.

 **…**

"Thank everyone for the hard working in this year!" After the performance finished, the mayor came and spoke. "Today is a special day. Not just the celebration that landing on Earth, but today a new member from the Axiom will join us."

Han quietly hit Auto with the elbow.

"His identity is special, but he came here with peace and cooperation, aiming to help human developing further."

The humans sit near Han watched as the boy and the android that almost the same height with Han suddenly stood, shocked but felt reasonable.

"Now, lets welcome our new member!" The mayor reached out his hand to the boy and Auto that walking up the stage.

People silenced. Thousands of eyes looked at the one- optic android walking in union.

If humans had remembered the celebration very well, they should have know this time the mayor quitted something — he didn't say the android's name or model.

Robots all know about this but stay still because of their boss's order.

"Thank for Mr. Grande to gave a chance to me to celebrate the Landing Day with all of you." The metallic overtone spread every corner of the square. "I am an Explorer, number EP-003. But please don't call me Explorer."

There was a sudden silence. Then audience began whispering.

The android look at the mayor stand beside. The mayor nodded.

"I am Auto, the former Autopilot of the Axiom."His metallic voice echoed on the square, "I'm ready for serving again."

The whole audience suddenly silent for one second.

Then suddenly blasted into noises.

Han heard the gossiping from the audience nearby, he didn't feel well.

"Him? Auto?"

"I reckon he just waked but now left the ship?..."

"It's impossible…"

"I told you he is! Notice that red eye? You just don't believe me…"

* * *

 **2:**

Auto locked the slowest man. Their distance quickly shrieked. Just when the robot was about to catch the human, the man suddenly jumped onto a short wall. Then the man kicked on the near tall wall, propped up the window below and suddenly jumped into the other side.

"Woo-hah!" The man seemed enjoy the chase very much, howling.

Auto leaped onto the low wall with his speed, then metal feet hit the high wall, simulating the young man flying through the walls. He turned to the other side of the wall, found that this was not a street, but the roof. He locked the figure of the young man and chased.

The young man seemed to have forgotten that he was still being chased, running on the roof. Once got toan edge he would leap and fall lightly on the other, as if playing the Dodge. He howled with intoxication in every moment he jumped.

"Woo-hooh!"

"Yeah-ha!"

Auto swore, he would be able to judge the position by the shouting, even if he could not see the figure of the young man. His speed was undiminished, and he leaped across the roof with inertia.

Although the man constantly change his direction in the roof, trying to get rid of Auto by jumping to the roofs in different distance between the last two roofs was a little longer, the youth fell without knowing whether his physical strength was getting down or did not step on the right place, he got a hard staggered. Just as he was about to start running, his back collar was gripped by something.

Looking back, it was not something else that hung his collar but the metal hand of the red-eye robot.

Fear exudes from the eyes of the man. He stared at the glorying red light from the robot, where he could not see a little emotion. Only the cold metal limbs that locked his wrist suggested a little possibility of the robot's mood.

"Where's your boss? Say it!" Auto fastened the young man's wrist. In the process of just catching up, he was also analyzing the relationship between the 3 people, after diversion he only to find that he was not chasing the leader.

He could have found it faster. But as soon as he entered this bizarre so-called O zone, he could not receive any information from other robots. He seemed to have been quarantined.

Fear filling in the human's eyes, but he soon turned into resistance. He wriggled wildly, trying to get rid of the robot, which looked smaller than him.

The young man's resistance only made him to be locked tighter by Auto. Auto pushed the young man on the wall of the roof aisle, human screamed. He had wanted to kick the robot away, but Auto was quicker. The robot stepped on his foot with a hard step.

"No resisting." The red light of android's single optic was mirrored on the young man's face. Auto's metal feet was ready to jam the flesh foot stepped below. "Don't force me to broke one of your bones."

"Wha…what do you want?" The young man gasping with fear.

"Tell me where's your leader." Auto said, "Then, come with me."

"Wha..what the hell do I know where he is…" the young man swallowed in fear. "He didn't tell me."

"Maybe you'd like to confess in plaster?" Auto began to slowly spin-squeeze the foot bones below with harder pressure.

"Ah…ah—!" The young man couldn't bear the severe（intense）pain on his foot anymore. Now there was begging in his voice. "I didn't lie to you! He never told me!"

"Now, behaving yourself, go." Auto stopped squeezing.

He was about to drag the young man from the wall did he saw a brief flicker down the reef. He just dragged the young man down, so did he. A pow flew and something grazed his metal skin.

* * *

 ** _That's the end of translating the Chapter 5._**


	7. Chapter 6

_**Summary:**_

Auto had to learn how to live on Earth. He learnt thinning out, pruning, weeding and watering from Mr. Grande(The Mayor). A 11-year-old girl named Alexis lived with the Mayor and was startled at first by Auto's appearance. She was on wheel because of an accident on her very young age. But soon Alexis accepted Auto and began to teach him how to doing housework.

Auto learnt his course very quickly. At night he would do the further learning out of farming at the control room behind the mayor's house; sometime he would listen to the people chatting as well as fixing some small machines. Mr. Grande began trust him and afford him more and more tasks.

The android didn't bother the robot couple Wall-E and Eve. They even didn't meet each other for a long time because where they were working was far away. Auto seemed forget about everything happened before, tried himself to fit him into the society.

Auto also constantly instructed Han, the 14-year-old boy some basic knowledge, preparing for the further learning of the Axiom. Couples of months later, the boy found this previous Autopilot seemed had changed a lot.

One day, the mayor decided to have a talk with this droid, wanting to know more about Auto.

* * *

 _ **Piece 1:**_

"Is that what you called teaching? ... Those teaching bots are not as stuffy as you are ... " Han couldn't help complaining.

"Feeling bored?" Auto said. "Same here."

Han was stunned to hear that. He turned him around to face the silvery robot. "You've changed a lot in the two months." Said Han.

" I do? "

"Look." Han got excited, like a drown person caught the straw. "When you were on the ship, you would only say a few words every day, now I have not heard you talk about them for a long time."

"Which words?"

"Like 'affirmative', 'negative', 'correct', 'not possible'. My ears were full of these words." Han said earnestly, "Now you are speaking much more native. "

"Haven't changed the speaking pattern. "

" Don't deny it, you've really changed." Han was unable to control the smile climbing to the face, "and you now got an accent. "

The droid stared at Han for a long time, and finally said a few words.

"Does not compute." A cold, metallic, and mono tone.

Since he changed the body, Auto had never used flat tone to speak. These words made Han stunned for a second, and then he burst into laughter. At first he was a little restrained as the robot watching, burying his head on the table to laugh. But soon he couldn't help laugh out loud.

It was only when he finally gasped that he spoke reluctantly and intermittently.

"Ha ha ha haha ... The more you simulate, the more funny it is ... Hahaha haha haha ... "

Auto didn't say anything, he just waited very quietly for the boy to finish laughing. By the time Han finally found the reddish spot that had been quietly set on himself in that dark room, he could not laugh any longer.

"Ready for your text?" The droid forked his hands and resumed his tone.

After hearing the words, Han actually felt relieved. As he turned back to the calculation, he said, "Auto, it's a pity that you can't laugh. I don't even know if you're teasing me."

"The highest realm of teasing is: I am teasing you while you cannot notice it."

Han was stunned again. But he reacted quickly. "Oh, nonsense." He responded, "How dare you brag with just little experience of teasing humans. "

Auto did not respond, but silently turned back to the articles he was reading. He has been trying to connect himself directly to the computer for two months, but was unsuccessful. Every time he tried to access, in the supposed interface was only blank.

Previously Auto only focused on the boy. But as Alexis came in and listened more and more, one afternoon, when Alexis once again pushed her wheelchair into the control room, Auto launched an invitation to her.

"Want to come over and learn?"

"Of course." The girl's pale face suddenly brightened. She put a broken book on her lap and was about to move the wheel to the holo-screen before Auto noticed the name of the book, _The Foundation._

"I like to read stories." Alexis saw the red spot standing on the title of the book and explained it. "But I can't find any more stories. I found it. Grandy won't let me watch too much screens. "

After hearing Alexis's words, Auto stood in silence. After a long time, as if he had been making a very hard decision, he bent down and spoke solemnly to Alexis. "Do you ... Want to hear about real things happened in space? "

the wheelchair girl nodded.

The droid sat down, facing the girl. He began to tell the long history.

In the narrative, they did not notice a impact blunt, which was the pen had fallen on the table not far away.

Han would never forget this day. He could never think of such an archaic metallic guy would actually had a milder side. He did not dare to turn back, afraid of his movements would disturb the dreamlike fantasy scene. The eloquent cold metal voice that came from behind that day echoed in his mind for a long time.

* * *

 _ **Piece 2:**_

One night, when Auto had just sorted out the cupboard and was about to go in the control room, he was called by the mayor.

"Auto, come here. " The old man stood at the door of the house and beckoned.

"Aye." The droid hesitated a little, but soon replied. "Wait a second." Then he trotted out the back door.

Auto soon returned to the living room. The mayor motioned the droid to go out of the door, and then sat on the porch bench.

"Sit down, Auto." "The old man made a greeting gesture to let the droid sit beside him. Then he picked up a glass bottle next to him.

In front of them was large corn fields. Shrouded in the night sky, there were only vague black silhouettes, and the whole cornfield seemed to fall asleep under the dark bedding. Summer night were no longer as hot as the day. There were lovely breeze came from the sea, by the time it sent away the rest temperature of the day, it also did not forget to send the fragrance of corn fields over.

"Was that better living now?" Said the old man, looking at the sleeping cornfield.

"Not bad." "The droid replied. "What's the matter?"

"Oh. Not." The old man opened the cap and sipped from the glass bottle. "Just want to chat with you for a while."

The night sky was clear. Without the moon, all the stars shone their brightest brilliance to the ground. Such scenes had long time didn't reappear since they polluted Earth. People who watched more carefully may find that there were always a few brighter stars in the sky that seem to be moving slowly relative to other stars. That's the other planets.

"Not very talkative, huh?" After a moment's silence, the mayor opened his mouth. "Captains must have suffered." He said, half earnest and half quipped.

"Not good at chatting." The droid answered.

The old man laughed. "I'm not gonna obstruct you either. To tell you the truth, I just want to know something about you. "

"Go on."

The old man turned his head, looking at the droid's mono-optic which was glowing in red, said, "You seem to have changed a lot." "

The droid was rarely silent for a long time. Then he answered.

"I do want to change myself. "

"why?"

"I want to join you." Replied Auto. "Rather than always being treated as a _daunting_ Autopilot. "

"Unfortunately, everyone seems to think so. "

"Am I that frightening?"

"Maybe it's because your cold tone."

"Possible." Auto immediately answered, "there were no other causes."

The old man did not reply immediately after listening. He looked at the dark cornfield and said quietly.

"Auto, do you know Captain McCrea told our predecessors that you had attacked him many times?"

"Attack?"

"Don't you know?" The old man stared at the mono-optic. "If I took it right, he said you didn't just locked him up, but tried to taze him like how you treated Wall-E."

The air seemed to solidify for a moment.

"Sir." Auto finally spoke, tone became serious. "Although it is not appropriate to talk about humans, he was unreasonable at the time. I put him in lockdown because he was determined to be 'dysfunction'. And my voltage wouldn't do any harm. It didn't violate the Starship Governing Treaty. "

"So far you've thought you were right?"

"I had no other choice at the time. "The droid replied, " Even it seems a little inappropriate now. "

" Humans are sensitive and fragile creatures. "The old man lamented. "I'm glad you're aware of that. "

The red light swept over the mayor's face, but the droid said nothing after all.

"Over the past few months, your behavior had relived me. " The mayor said. "There were a lot of people who thought you were going to keep executing the A113 directive, which means you're going to do whatever it would take to get humans back on the Axiom. You've been keeping down for nearly a century implied the concerns that people carried out of this situation. "

"After these months, you've done far more than I expected. It's almost the best in the best situation. " The mayor said, "I actually had a question since I notice your attitude at the first day you've been activated, but I thought that was too hasty then. Now that you've been out of the Axiom, and you're working so hard, I think it's time to ask you this question. "

"What's the question?"

"Why did the directive A113 disappear?"

"Sir, the directive A113 hasn't been removed, it's still existing." The red light flashed through the old man's face. Auto lifted one hand and pointed to his own storage unit, "but it is conditional for this directive to take effect." "

"What's the condition?" Seeing the droid stop, the old man continued to encourage him to say.

"Survival indicators." Auto explained. "The A113 directive will not officially expire when and only if all indicators have meet the human survival standards. "

"Although oxygen level was up to standard on year 2815, other environmental factors were not conducive to the human survival. The source of that plant was also out of list." Auto continued, "So my judgment was to continue executing the directive A113."

"So now directive A113 has been terminated?"

"Yes."

"Well." The old man hummed with a meaningful tune. "Perhaps Captain McCrea's warning was reasonable. "

The red light again flashed through the old man's face.

"Short after we landed, the environment was exactly the same as in that classic video." Said the mayor slowly, "and we did have an very hard time."

"Every inch of the land was glorying white, and everyone behind the sun couldn't open their eyes. One little breeze could blow the dust into their eyes and noses. Not to mention the pathetic freshwater resources. The dead land left all the people disillusioned in just half a day." The mayor said. "The impulse to transform our home didn't last long. In the first few months, the ship's robot crews made incalculable contributions in reclaiming the Earth Village..."

"... There was hardly any harvest in the first few years. Captain McCrea was under great pressure. In one hand, e continued persuading people to eat the food retained on the Axiom to sustain their lives, on the other hand he finally began to formally learn the techniques of farming ... "

Auto listened silently to the old man. Although he had learned about some history from the robot crew, he now had plenty of time. As long as the mayor was willing to go on, he would not interrupt the old man.

"...Gradually There was water under the Axiom, which had previously been resisted by our raising ridge. But in the year 2843 , a flood made all the farmland of the Axiom's south slope cannot be farmed any more. Actually the anti-wind and anti-sand conditions of the South slope were the best, but this flooded year had let the south slope, the main cultivated land permanently abandoned. There was no doubt that we had suffered a severe poor harvest that year. The farming land had to be all moved to the North Slope, however, the next year came the drought. Two consecutive harvests had let everyone into a difficult period again ... "

"... After Captain McCrea's death, relatively stable arable lands were finally gradually settled down. But occasional sandstorms will always initiate great threats to all of us. "

After telling the long story, the mayor picked up the glass bottle from the ground and calmly opened the cap and drank it. The night had stepped into calm. Cool breeze came from unknown direction, carrying the fragrance of the planting rod from the corn field and the distant sea.

"Auto." The mayor suddenly asked. "If Captain McCrea had rebooted you while he's still alive, would you continue to execute the A113 directive?"

It's definitely a good question. The red spot hung low on the ground and stopped for a long time. The mayor waited quietly for the droid beside him.

"Maybe I would." "Replied Auto in a low voice.

He could only say this three words. He couldn't answer more.

If he had been rebooted then, who knew if the shocking and tragic sight of the environment was going to stir up his most tight nerves, after he had seen the desolate land and the waving humanity? Auto believed he will. And the rest was undoubtedly urging the large number of humans rushing back to the spaceship while the stubborn captain still alive. What kind of massive conflict would he face again? What should he do with it?

He dared not press on any longer. The uncertainty of this incredibly complex thing almost made Auto down.

Fortunately, all was over. He was already faced with such a relatively stable situation. Freshwater sources have been clean, windbreaks have also been built in this century, to ensure the stability of the cultivated land in North slope. Looking down from the Bridge, the waters of the bay twinkled with sparkling waves, and glass-like blue marked an improvement in water quality.

"Maybe you're lucky, or we're all lucky." The mayor said. "I want to thank you for your sincere work over the past few months. You have learned fast and helped a lot. "

"Too kind, mayor." Auto replied, "It's my duty."

"At first, me, included, was deeply skeptical of it." Replied the mayor, "Almost everyone thought you're bent on piloting the Axiom. "

"It's prejudice." Replied the droid, helplessly.

"Ha ha, obviously." The air eased a lot. "It was true that you were slowly integrating into our society." said the mayor, in his old and hoarse voice.

When Auto heard this, the red light jerked on the old man, and then turned to the cornfield in front of him.

"I've been, thinking about one thing." Auto's red eye looked straight ahead, and a small piece of corn seedlings slightly stained with a little red.

The mayor looked at the droid with an expression of inquiry.

"... About _life_ . " Auto said.

A fleeting surprising look flashed through the old man's eyes.

"Is it Captain McCrea —"

"Yes. " Auto said.

"So do you have any understanding?"

"I probably understood why Captain McCrea was trying to live instead of survive. " The droid said, "It's interesting living here."

A faint light shone in the man's eyes under the unprecedented starlight. "Interesting?"

"More interesting than staying on the Bridge." Auto said, "Even if there was an emergency, the treatment was in procedure. Busy, but dull."

" How do you think the ground was interesting? " The old man encouraged Auto to go on.

"There's always new stuff every day." Said Auto, who turned his single optic over. "And the jokes."

" I don't believe the former captains couldn't tell jokes. I don't believe you can't understand jokes, either. " Said the old man with a slight smile.

Auto looked as if he were a little embarrassed. "I did haven't thought about that then. "

"Now you has enlightened?" The mayor asked, "Why?"

"This body has upgraded many of my functions. Verbal ability, mobility, and ways of thinking, all have improved." Auto said.

"Secondly, it should also be related to the reduced pressure that not dealing with the ship's affairs too much." Auto changed in a slightly sarcastic tone and said, "I'm retired."

The mayor was amused.

The old man looked at the horizon and continued to open his mouth. "Life wasn't just interesting. More importantly, it provides a stage for people to challenge. Why did captain McCrea always mention _life_? It was because the environment odf the Axiom was too comfortable. Human nature was to head on the challenge, huh. "

" That's right. " Auto said. "But I can't understand it. "

"You can't understand it yet?" The mayor said with some surprise, "I thought you have understood."

" I don't know why you won't stay still when the conditions were good, instead going to take a risk." Auto said, "It doesn't make any sense. "

" It seems that you have not yet appreciated the true meaning of _life_ , young man." Said the mayor, laughing.

"Maybe." Said the droid. But he didn't seem to be joking.

He suddenly wished he could have even a little expression. But he only had a face that looked like being welded tightly. He can only express his feelings by changing his intonation and doing a little body language. Yet every change was a huge challenge to him. It was not surprising, because it meant that there was huge data have to be accumulated previously to ensure that all changes were normal. And it was necessary to adjust the entire thinking architecture to thoroughly convince himself.

Beneath his cold exterior, a fiery soul began to thaw.

It was almost the midnight. The blurry chirping began to clear up. The chirping in the corn fields chased each other in the cornfield. The ground, which had completely cooled down, began to slowly pile up moisture, and it slowly drilled out of the crevices of the land and spread over the entire Earth Village. And the cool winds began to gradually and continuously blow from the distant dry land towards the sea.

"Listen, Auto." The mayor was intoxicated with the starry sky and the fresh botanical air with its intoxicating aroma. "Did you hear that?"

"Chirping?" Auto tried to speculate.

"Well." The mayor closed his eyes. "Do you know which kind of insect it is?"

"Cricket ." " Cricket." To Auto's surprise, they spoke at the same time.

"Not bad." "The old man said with a smile, " You know cricket. "

" Han told me. " Replied Auto. "He showed me one, too."

The old man continued to close his eyes. By this time the clouds had completely dispersed, and the light of the Milky Way had poured down its bright light, projecting the stars to the ground, which had just been wrapped in darkness. There seemed to be thousands of cricket agitating their stereos, playing the staggered and harmonious symphony of the night .

"This is life, Auto." The old man said, "This is life ... "

* * *

 ** _That's the end of translating the Chapter 6._**


End file.
